STAR WARS: The Crimson Blight
by Nanodragon
Summary: In the time of the Old Republic, a story depicting the power and intricacy of the force binding Light and Dark, is about to unfold in the midst of the galaxy spanning cold war between the ruthless Sith Empire and the declining Galactic Republic.
1. Episode 0: Prologues: Part 1

**STAR WARS**

 **THE CRIMSON BLIGHT**

Episode 0: Prologues

Eight years before the treaty of Coruscant.

KORRIBAN: SITH ACADEMY

In the dead of night, on the savage red world of Korriban, a young sith acolyte was suddenly yanked from her sleep by an intensive jolt of pain. She instantly sat up in her bed, dripping with sweat as she tried to make sense of the pain she felt. She tried to control her breath while clearly feeling the adrenaline racing through her body. As she managing to calm herself and wiped the sweat from her horn protruding forehead, the zabrak's bright green eyes were discernable in nearly black room, in contrast to the tattooed red skinned face and maroon hair. She was tall for her seventeen years, muscular and hardened by countless hours of intensive training, which she had spent with the goal of becoming a sith warrior in the imperial forces.

" _Was it just a dream? A nightmare! No... not a nightmare"_ as Briza thought this to herself, she suddenly felt a second jolt of pain. But it wasn't her pain... it was her brother's _"TERROW!"_ she shouted inside herself, with the realization. She quickly blazed out of her room, and sprinted down the dimly lit corridor. She ren as fast as she could while trying to make as little noise as possible - a balancing feat few acolytes on the planet could compete with.

On a torture bench meant for prisoners, located on the first floor of the academy, an orange skinned twelve year old zabrak found himself strap tightly down. A blond haired thin looking human leaned over and whispered maliciously into the bound zabrak's ear. "Swear you will be my slave, or do you really wish for further suffering?!"

"I will never be your slave!". Terrow retorted angrily, despite knowing full well, that he was completely at the mercy of this _sadistic_ mad acolyte.

"You are not making it easy for yourself" the blond human uttered with a fake sad expression. A sinister smile slid over his face, as he shocked the strapped zabrak with bursts of force lightning.

Terrow's screams from the unbearable pain reverberated between the sterile walls. He spasmed violently, as he was shocked over and over. The flashes of lightning lit the otherwise dark and gloomy torture chamber and revealed the congealed stains of blood sowed across the floor.

The human relented for a moment, and uttered a cruel remark with glee in his voice "I will continue to torture you until you accept my claim over you"

At this point, Terrow knew he would most likely _die_. But of all the acolytes on the academy, this human freak was last living being he would give-in to. "Never... to you" he stated and resigned himself to his fate.

The blond human was becoming _livid._ Frustrated over his failure to force the zabrak to submit to his will, he spat out in rage"VERY WELL! Then you will die". As he was about to end the life before him, an invisible hand suddenly grabbed him around his throat and forced him up in the air. Fear overwhelmed him as he desperately tried to get free of the mental iron grip.

"No one hurts my BROTHER!" Briza snarled with venom dripping from her voice, as she tightened her grip.

The blond human was smashed into a metal cage and slammed down onto the tool table he had recently used himself. With some of the torture equipment now _burrowed_ in his flesh and rest scattered around him, he would have screamed if it was not for the complete lack of air in his lungs. Now lying helplessly in a pull of acid spreading on the ground, he resembled a doll without any strings to hold him op.

Briza wanted _so_ dearly to kill the wretched human and paint him all over the walls of the academy to show what happens when _morons_ tries to threaten her family, but this one was chosen by a high lord for reasons unknown to her. "If you ever come near my brother again! I will kill you!" she exclaimed, her voice dripping with hate.

The human barely managed to find the strength to nod in acknowledgement.

Briza turned to her younger brother and with a quick wave of her hand the locking mechanism in the torture bench sprang open. She lifted the barely living sibling up in her arms, "Come Terrow, let's get you fixed up" she muttered in a soft voice, with the smell of freshly burned flesh still in her nostrils, she carried him gently to the infirmary.

CORUSCANT: JEDI TEMPLE

In the training chambers of the temple, a little thirteen year old beige zabrak girl, with light brown hair and emerald green eyes, was practising her saber sequences.

The doors slid open as a silver plated protocol droid entered the chamber. The droid began speaking to her in its usual polite synthetic voice "I am sorry to disturb you mistress Tikala, but Master Buz would like to speak with you as soon as possible. He is waiting for you in the gardens of remembrance."

"Thank you J-three, I will go talk to him at once" Tikala replied in a soft but serious tone as she turned her training saber off. Placing it on the weaponsstand, she ventured out to the gardens where her summoner was waiting.

The gardens of remembrance were an Atrium with an elongated field of grass surrounded by lush trees and bushes. Over by the rock formation that made up the artificial waterfall, sat a Kel Dorian Jedi Master cross legged on the soft green grass meditate next to a number of status commemorating the great jedi's of old. He rose when he sensed the initiate's arrival.

"You wanted to see me master?" Tikala asked politely, when she was within hearing distance.

The Kel Dorian master smiled as he turned to look at the youngling behind him "Initiate Tikala, thank you for seeing me, I hope your training is going well"

Tikala nodded with a smile of her own "I'm practicing everyday. I'm learning how to absorb small amounts kinetic energy"

"Good, very good. You are showing promising, young jedi" Buz commended. In reality, those words were an understatement. She was several years ahead of most of the other Initiates. With speed she took the various techniques to heart. She was force attuned as had never been seen before in such a young Jedi. It was never a question of _if_ she would be chosen by a jedi master... but rather _who._

Tikala smiled at the compliment. Then she felt something else, something more important, on his mind "Master... I sense you did not send for me to speak about my training"

"Indeed, you are right young one" Buz confirmed with a complimenting look. He continued in a more serious tone "It's about your brother"

"My brother?" Tikala echoed in surprise. She knew she had a brother, but she only had a faint memories of her sibling.

"The council have decided to train your older brother as a jedi" Buz informed in a deep and serious tone.

Tikala didn't know how to feel or think, she thought the master's words over before uttering "Why? Why was he not trained alongside me?"

Buz was not completely sure how much he should reveal, but the truth seemed the wiser choice "In the past, we deemed your brother too impulsive and headstrong to train," Buz paused before continuing, "But the war with the sith have necessitated a change in perspective and the council feels that _if_ he is able to learn the ways of the force half as quickly as you, it would be worth the risk"

Tikala was still a bit perplexed by it all. A part of her really wanted to meet this brother of hers, but the other... Everyone in the jedi temple was family and she didn't want to think of one as more special than the others.

"I felt you should know that he will be joining us in a couple of weeks, to learn and train among us" Buz explained and crossed his legged as he sat down upon the grass. With a wave of his hand, he invited the Initiate to sit beside him.

Tikala accepted the invitation. For a long moment they both meditated, surrounded by the cascading sounds of the artificial waterfall gently splashing against the rocks below. Tikala opened her eyes a little to look upon a small area of beautiful yellow flowers. They had a powerful, but pleasant smell, " _it is so peaceful here, you can almost forget that we are at war with a brutal empire_ " she thought to herself as she closed her eyes again to reenter the calming meditation.

KORRIBAN: SITH ACADEMY

Terrow woke to find a bright light shining sharply down from the operation lamp above him. At first his vision seemed to fail him, but after a short while, he regained enough to notice his surrounding. They were all too familiar. He lay on a bed in the medical bay, with tubes and equipment hanging on the wall for ease of use.

He had been critically wounded so many times it was becoming the norm for him. In the last month alone; his legs had been crushed in an exercise, the week before he had been buried alive out in Korriban's desert, with only his head above the sand and no water. Three days went by before his older sister found him.

It was because of his accursed lack of force talent while still being a force sensitive. He had been forced into the academy to be trained as a sith acolyte. But he was weak, and _because_ he was weak... he was a target for everyone who was _not_ as weak as him. He was the plaything, the punching bag, the one everyone could test their dark powers on.

Had it not been for his older sister, who unlike him was strong and gifted in the ways of the force, stubbornly protecting him, he would have been tortured and killed in so many _unfathomable_ ways, he did not dare to think of the horrors he would have faced.

He was alive thanks to Briza. Ever since he arrived on this _nightmare_ planet, she had been there to make sure he was as safe as possible. Even some of his sister's 'allies' had been somewhat protective of him or rather not refraining from using him as a toy. Thereby making others think he was worth taking note of.

But when she was not around, he had to hide. He had been cunning enough to stay out of sight for the most part, but when he was forced to attend their daily lessons, it was a different story. They were the single most vulnerable times of the day and the penalty for not showing up could be very painful. Being late, either meant hard manual labor or being the one to feel, on his own body, what they had been taught the same day.

But lately, some of the more attuned acolytes had had fun in tracking him down. Last night, they had changed from simple bullies, to sadistic tyrants.

He had been wandered through the gloomy corridors of the academy. As he was nearing some of the training chambers, he had gotten the distinct feeling that someone was following him. Terrow had turned his head slightly to look behind him. Someone was indeed following him, and something told him, they intended himharm. He began to walk faster and faster, adrenalin rushed through him, readying himself as shadowy figures surrounded him. _"What! Are they really so many around me or are they using mind infusing technics!?"_

To say that Terrow was afraid, was an understatement, he was terrified. But suddenly they all disappeared. He noticed a single hooded figure disappearing out of sight down the hallway. The reason revealed itself a moment later, when his Sister stepped out of the shadows.

"Good to see you have recovered" Briza smiled as she walked toward him.

Terrow's relief threatened to overwhelming him. He tried to force a smile of his own "Briza… I" he took a deep breath before continuing "I need your help"

A bit later inside Briza's quarters. Briza had unfolded two foldable chairs, with a small table in between them.

It was Terrow who broke the silence "Last night... I was on the verge of breaking... I can't protect myself... I could never become a sith lord... I doubt the force will ever be unlocked in me. What small talent I possess is not enough" he shuttered in an ominous voice. "I know there isn't long before you will fight in the tournament. You will likely be chosen and leave the academy for good" his eyes became teary as he spoke "I beg you sister, help me escape!"

Her gaze turned hard as stone and when she spoke her words was as cold and sharp as ice "That's treason! You would be killed if you tried to leave! And if you somehow managed to get off planet, they will hunt you until you are dead!"

"I am a dead man if I stay here!" Terrow replied with dread in his voice "My talents are not related to the force. I know I could better serve our empire elsewhere"

Briza didn't like where this was going,. She had always hoped his potential would surface one day, but when? And if at all? No matter what... time was running out.

"You can't protect me indefinitely. Even if you failed in the tournament on purpose, you would likely be questioned by your teachers for your poor performance" Terrow muttered in a low voice, hoping the wisdom of his words would resonate with his sister .

Some time went by, where none of them uttered a word. Briza sighed as she came to the same conclusion. "...What do you need brother?"

CORUSCANT: JEDI TEMPLE

A rendaran-class shuttle had just a moment earlier entered the atmosphere over the sprawling planetary wide city of coruscant and were in the process of landing on one of the many landing platforms in front of its destination. From the ship's viewport, the new arrivals were met by the golden pillars of the jedi temple shining in the light of the midday sun.

The shuttle's ramp lowered and two young tattooed male students, one a green eyed beige skinned zabrak with small horns protruding from his short brown hair. The other, a green skinned mirialan with middle length dark brown hair in pageboy style and a, according to his _friends,_ stupid looking braid, descended from the ship. "Phwep! So this is the Jedi temple" the zabrak whistled _mostly_ to himself, "This is going to be awesome! I can't wait until I have a lightsaber in hand... and beating a sith with it!" he exclaimed in excitement. "How about you Urr'Tar! Ready for some action?!"

"This _place_... is _weird_... everyone is _flying_ around" Urr'Tar spoke in a stoned and very sluggish tone.

"Are you going to throw up?!" Mathorn asked, ready to move out of the way if the green guy should vomiting at any giving time.

"... _maybe_..." Urr'Tar replied unsure of what was going on in his mind.

A female rattataki jedi knight with orange eyes, no hair and Grayish-silver skin, moved to greet them, "Welcome to the jedi temple, My name is Reniuz Linzan, I hope you both had a pleasant voyage" she introduced herself in a soft and pleasant voice.

Mathorn looked up at the tall rattataki "Hi jedi lady, can I borrow your lightsaber for minute?"

"No my eager friend, but I can show you our training facilities. There you will be given a training saber for practising your skills." Reniuz admonished the youngling.

" _Darn, worth a try tho"_ Mathorn cursed inside himself, "can I choose the color?" he asked on a whim.

"I'm _hungry_ , what's for _dinner_?" Urr'Tar asked, still in the same drowsy tone.

"Well dinner is in two hours" Reniuz replied politely, "I don't remember the menu, tho" she quickly added seeing Urr'Tar's confused face, then turned to Mathorn again "most of our training sabers are yellow, but we have a few that are green or orange"

Mathorn shrugged, "Well, I choose orange"

"Please follow me, I will be your guide and show you around in our centuries old temple, your new home" Reniuz said with reverence.

The two newcomers followed the jedi inside the enormous temple.

In contrast to how new students usually behaved when they entered the magnificent temple, these two asked next to no questions on the tour. The zabrak seemed a bit impatient, something she hoped they could get rid off before long. The mirialan seemed... not to be there at all, even with her jedi sense, he just seemed to follow in the flesh, while his mind seemed elsewhere, like it didn't belonged on this plane of existence.

Reniuz stopped in front of an ornate wooden double door and turned to look at the newcomers "behind these doors is where you will study the force in all its aspects. Your fellow students are in the middle of their training session, would you like to meet them now?"

"Well... let's get it over with" Mathorn replied indifferently, like it didn't really matter one way or the other.

Urr'Tar looked up two seconds later, as if his reaction time was unbelievably slow " _Okay_ " he just replied in that drowsy tone of his.

Reniuz smiled as she opened the doors to reveal the training chamber bathed in light flooding in from the three large windows in the far end of the room. Reniuz began introducing them to the crowd of students.

One of the first things Mathorn took note of was that all his fellow students was younger than him. They were different age groups, spanning from small children, to early teens.

A young human male came over and extended a hand to Mathorn "Welcome to the jedi temple, my name is Jonathan Baliss, what is your name?" he asked in a polite and civilised fashion.

Mathorn just ignored the outstretched hand and instead asked, just for the fun of it "Are you good at fighting?"

Jonathan didn't expect that reply to his question, so Reniuz replied instead, "Jonathan is one of the best jedi initiates in the class"

"Awesome! That means you are my rival!" stated Mathorn enthusiastically and patted the confused Jonathan on the shoulder. Looking back up at the jedi Rattataki he said "So where is my saber? I want too see how good the pipsqueak is!"

"I'm _hungry_ , who are these _people_ again?" Urr'Tar asked as the realization sank in.

Reniuz sighed heavily and thought to herself _"I don't know what to do with these two. They are so... not of this place"_ on the surface however, she was calm and her voice was soft when she spoke "Patience, you will be giving one before the end of the day," she turned to Urr'Tar "And to answer your question, dinner will be served in one hour, but before that happens let me first show you to your new quarters" she suggested, and showed them out of the door.

Jonathan was still a bit perplexed, this _zabrak_ was unlike anyone he had meet before. He felt so completely out of his element that he even forgot to say hello to the mirialan.

Reniuz showed them around the remainder of the temple and finished the tour by showing them their rooms.

At first Mathorn found it to be a step up from his previous home, right up until he jumped head first into his new bed, as he used to do, but while his old bed was soft, this one was _not,_ "Och! What kind of a bed is this?!" he complained, and added further "how are people supposed to sleep on this... _thing_ ".

Reniuz had to suppress a laughter "The beds are built specifically for jedi. It makes sure you don't lose muscle mass while sleeping"

Urr'Tar lay down on the bed, "This is _good_ bed... I sleep now"

"Firstly. Really! I don't think I could ever sleep on this. Secondly, weren't you hungry just a moment ago? And thirdly, go sleep in your own blasted bed!" Mathorn demanded as he started to push the sleepy mirialan out of the bed.

But Reniuz, using the force, caught Urr'Tar and slowly lifted him away from the bed "You may sleep in your own room if you wish, but I suggest you atleast have dinner first" she suggested in a soft but clear voice.

" _I'm_ in the _air_ , _why_ am I in the air?" Urr'Tar questioned the logic of his being, "And now I'm not flying anymore" he mumbled, as he was sat down on his feet.

Mathorn grabbed a hold on the mirialan's shirt "Come on sleepy head! let's get something to eat. I'm starving" as he dragged him with him. They were stopped by Reinuz who stood in front of the door blocking the exit.

"Release him! If he wants to go, he can do so himself" she commanded with a firm and hard tone of voice.

"Yes-yes, whatever you say lady jedi" Mathorn muttered irritated and released his hold on the mirialan.

Reniuz satisfied continued, "Good. Now follow me to the cafeteria"

"Oh yes... _fooood_ " Urr'Tar mumbled barely audible, as he followed suite.

The cafeteria was a large spacious room with high ceiling. In the middle was placed three very long green tables, which students of various race and age were gathered around. Others were waiting in line to receive their meal. Reniuz led Mathorn and Urr'Tar to the line's end, but let them enter before herself.

After a few minutes standing in line, Mathorn was given a tray. On it was a bowl of blue soup, some red wholegrain bread and some spiky looking green fruits. He sat down near some of the older students, as he looked around to better get a sense of the people surrounding him. He barely noticed Urr'Tar sitting right next to him.

Urr'Tar, who despite having spoken about being hungry, was not hungry after all when he looked into bowl of blue soup.

"May I sit opposite you?" a very young female zabrak asked Mathorn carefully.

"Suit yourself" Mathorn replied indifferently, but after a second glance, he noticed that the little zabrak girl looked oddly familiar.

"I... I don't know if you have been told" Tikala spook with an anxious voice. When he looked blankly at her, she gathered the necessary courage to finish the sentence "I'm your... _sister_ "

Mathorn sat completely frozen for a moment as he stared directly into her eyes. _They had similar emerald green eyes that was for sure_. Then his facial expression darkened. He had previously learned that he had a little sister, who was chosen by the jedi at a very young age, while he was _not!_ A part of him wanted nothing more than to get angry and tell her to get lost. But another part came to the conclusion that she after all was his little baby sister. _He couldn't treat her like dirt, that would damage his image, besides she looked too cute to make fun off_ "well... hi sis. Long time... _never_ seen before"

Tikala chuckled a bit, somewhat surprised by his humorous remark "hi brother, my name is Tikala Xastra"

"Mathorn is the name... well... add your own last name and it fits" he introduced in turn "Hey Urr'Tar, Say hi to my sister" he more or less demanded.

"Hi... you are _not_ very tall" Urr'Tar stated mumbling in his usual drowsy tone.

"She is my _little_ sister! Of course she not very tall" Mathorn replied with his usual sense of logic.

Tikala didn't really know how to respond at first, but simple truth seemed the easiest choice"...I will get taller ...eventually" she replied as a matter of fact.

"Yes... you'll be a big girl one day" Mathorn smiled. He would have patted her on the head, if he were able to reach across the wide table. Instead he turned toward Urr'Tar "Isn't my sister just the cutest?!"

"She looks clean enough" Urr'Tar mumbled, but this time with a smile of agreement painted on his face.

Tikala couldn't help but make a smile of her own. She was being flattened in a way she couldn't remember ever having tried before.

Then, out of the blue, Urr'Tar's head sank down and into the bowl with the remainder of his soup while snoring just loud enough, that everyone nearby looked over to see what just happened.

Mathorn cracked. He could barely sit up straight, when breathing became a serious problem. All while Tikala quickly force jumped over the table and helped the poor mirialan out of his warm soup. When Mathorn had finished laughing and Tikala, with the help of some of the other students, had cleaned the mirialan's face of the hot blue soup, Reniuz took over and carried Urr'Tar back to his new chambers and placed him on his bed.


	2. Episode 0: Prologues: Part 2

KORRIBAN: SITH ACADAMY

After the morning training session, Briza approached one of elite acolytes. The pureblood sith, a typical red skinned male, who was slightly shorter than her, with acid burns from one encounters or another. At the moment he was alone in one of the side halls. She knew him a bit from fighting a few sparring matches with him in the past.

"Good day, Grimt" Briza greeted the sith in a surprisingly polite and inviting tone of voice.

"What do want" Grimt sneered back at her. It was unusually for her to greet him in such a manner and he instantly became suspicious _something was off_.

"I have a proposition you might be interest in" Briza told him and gestured for him to follow.

Grimt paused for a moment, the invitation was both tempting and interesting. While he did considered her somewhat attractive for a zabrak, he also found her very intimidating. He, like the rest of the academy, knew about her high force ability and aggressive temper, plus he had fought against her and lost. He reluctantly followed without uttering a word.

Briza showed him to an empty room, where after making sure no one was eavesdropping, she began to explain what was on her mind.

Grimt's expression gradually change from tens to amused, with every revelation, "Sooo, you want me to 'pretended', that I have _accidentally_ killed your brother"

Briza nodded to show he understood, "Yes. Tomorrow he and dozen others, are going to search the tomb of Naga sadow. You will _force_ him deeper into the tomb. There you will _burrow_ him under rock and rubble, so only some of his _equipment_ will be recoverable as evidence"

"But what do _I_ , get out of all this!" Grimt utterly demanding to know. She couldn't possibly force him to do all this _without_ some sort of compensation. Now that he thought on it, he could _use_ her words for blackmail, not that he could prove anything, at _this_ giving time.

"The honor of besting me in single combat, at the upcoming tournament" Briza said, unveiled her offer flat out.

Grimt was perplexed for moment. Would she really throw her prestige away, just to save her useless brother? "So you would let me advance above you, if I take part in your plan?"

"Precisely" Briza confirmed with a grin.

"But how do I know this isn't a trick?" Grimt demanded to know. This kind of behaviour wasn't standard sith doctrine and widely considered weak. Then again, he had heard of her protecting that brother of hers in various cases.

"We will both have something on each other and if you wonder how I will climb the ladder once I lose... let's just say, I got that covered" Briza grinned mysteriously .

Grimt thought about it for a long moment and eventually decided it was worth the risk. He had long awaited an opportunity such a this "Very well, I will play the part" he agreed to the terms with a slight grin of his own.

"Good, we have deal" Briza replied satisfied and silently left the room without drawing attention.

* * *

On the landing platforms. As an elder human-cyborg was running maintenance checks on his imperial transporter, he noticed Briza entering the hangar in the reflection of the ship's metal hull. He immediately stopped what he doing, turned around and bowed respectfully. "If it isn't my favored lord of the sith. Is there anything I can do for you my lord?" Jent asked politely.

Briza smiled in return "I do in fact have a little job for you. I have a package I want you to deliver to my mother" she ordered in a firm but friendly tone "I want you to deliver it to this address, _personal_ " she gave the human a piece of flimsiplast with an address and some coordinations leading to somewhere in Kaas city.

"As you wish my lord. I will take off immediately, as soon my ship is fouled and ready" Jent replied eagerly, ready to please the young warrior in any way he could.

"No, wait until your usually takeoff to Dromund Kaas, so no one will be the wiser. And yes, this package won't be logged" Briza explained in a commanding, but soft voice.

Jent nodded and replied while standing at attention "it will be done, my lord". A few years back, Briza had saved him in an incidents that could easily have cost him his life. He had at one time, while fixing the engines on his own ship, dropped his glow rod on a fuel pipe, accidentally ignited the fuel line to the personal yard of a sith teacher at the academy. Briza, who had been witness to the accident, had told the sith lord that one of maintenance droids had malfunctioned and that the pilot had in fact actually tried to stop the fire from spreading. The last part wasn't all that far from the truth, and there was a droid who had conveniently succumb in the fire after it _too_ tried to stop flames from spreading.

Since then he had gladly done her favors, mostly in the form of knowledge. He had even let Briza borrow his transporter, when it was not in active service, and he had giving her pilot lessons. Luckily for him she caught on quickly, so she always returned it in the same conditions as when she left with it.

* * *

The next day, Terrow and the rest of the group, found themselves in the tomb of Naga Sadow, equipped with only their training saber and a glow-rod. Their mission was to assist the imperial reclamation service, who was digging through a wall when they arrived. Some in his group stood guard, while others scouted the corridors for a possible hidden Hssiss or a Tuk'ata waiting for the right moment to make a meal out of them.

Terrow followed the scouting group occasionally looking around to see if the pureblood sith, Briza had arranged to _kill_ him would show up. After having wandered the hieroglyphs decorated halls, for what felt like forever, he suddenly found himself lost.

"So, this is the little brat I'm supposed to save" came a dry voice from within the crypt.

Before realising what was going on, Terrow was hauled into a wall. His back went numb with pain "Do you have to be this violent?" he asked sounding more calm than he really was.

Grimt laughed dryly and replied in much the same tone "Don't worry you pathetic weakling... I won't _kill_ you, but your sister didn't say anything about you getting _unharmed_ out of this... Let's make it look convincing, shall we?" He added the last words as a sadistic smile spread across his red lips.

Terrow didn't know if he should be frightened or relieved, nevertheless he was slammed onto the floor, where he entered a world of pain centered around his stomach. He couldn't even scream if he wanted to, as he was dragging head first through the rough sand. Each time he tried, his mouth would get filled with the accursed sand, which by now tasted of his own blood from all the lacerations on his face. Suddenly he was lifted up in a painful grip that squeezed his entire body. He started bleeding from new as well as old wounds which were opening up one by one.

"I can't fathom why you sister would save such a pitiful being. I could _so_ easily kill you..." Grimt smirked while the temptation to tear this wretched weakling apart rolled over him "but you are not even worth killing. Your worth is much greater to me alive"

Terrow felt his equipment and bloody cloth get ripped from his body just to see it get crushed into small pieces, torn apart and tossed in a bloody pile.

Grimt used the force to call upon a hungry Tuk'ata, that charged into the chamber, trying to get to the zabrak hanging in midair. The pureblood walked a few steps out of the chamber and summed the force, tearing some of pillars down, thereby collapsing the chamber in on itself. As a final act, he sent Terrow flying out from the chamber, just before the zabrak was buried alive.

In another chamber, in another part of the tomb, Terrow was dizzy to say the least. His entire body hurt and he had immense trouble just standing up strait. He nearly collapse from the excruciating pain when he felt a couple of medical packs tossed at him.

"Patch yourself up scum and be sure to tell your sister, that I've done my part, now it's her turn" with those words, Grimt turned around and left through the opposite corridor of where he had come.

Now alone, Terrow began the monumental task of bandaging himself back together. He was weak and knew if any creatures were to happen upon him, he would be done for! It took hours to get patched up and every movement was agonizing. So many times he had wanted to scream in pain, but he had known that any loud noises right then and it would have been over.

As he moved through the empty corridors, he occasionally saw traces left behind by the reclamation service drilling activities.

He reached the desolate gorge outside of the tomb. Night had fallen and with it a cold dry wind sweeping across the canyon. Only the few petrols lighting up the surrounding darkness stood in the way of him reaching the rendezvous point he and Briza had decided upon weeks ago. After yet another stealthy endeavour, he made it to a small cave, where his sister was awaiting arrival.

"Is it done? Is my brother dead now?" Briza asked casually, as her brother came into view

Terrow chuckled a little and with a small grin muttered "I feel very much _dead_ , right now"

"You look terrible, but you will have a _long_ time to recover in peace" Briza smiled as she stated the facts. She pointed to a large container "in the box, you will find military rations for a week and the medical stuff you will need"

Terrow nodded as he walked towards the container to inspect the content for himself.

"I guess this is goodbye then" Briza muttered with sadness audible in her voice.

"Or, until we meet again" Terrow replied with in much more positive tone, despite the continuous burning pain.

Briza gave her brother a big hug as farewell.

"Ouch... not so tight, I just died or have you already forgotten" Terrow complained with glint in his eye.

Briza chucked a bit and released him. Her face grew serious. "Remember what I taught you! Hide your force presence from everyone. It's the only way you are going to avoid discovery".

"Got it. I will have plenty of time to train alone" Terrow assured her with a smile and entered the container.

Briza gently gave him a kiss on his scarred cheek and closed the lid.

After checking for nearby bystanders and security cameras, she could have missed, she used the force to slide the container carefully in front of her toward the landing area.

* * *

Jent was smoking beneath the control tower while watching Korriban's yellow sun set in the horizon, as he spotted a familiar zabrak accompanied by large box hovering behind her.

As a precaution, Jent immediately went inside and deactivate the suvallains system. Thereafter he hurried down to meet the young red warrior. "So, this is the box I promised to deliver?" he asked as confirmation.

"It is" Briza confirmed, with a slight nod.

Jent looked at the container while calculating its measurements and relative weight. "Very well, it looks heavy. I'll get my lifter" he pressed a button on his robotic arm, and a lifting droid came rolling.

"Just be careful with it. It's _fragile_ materials" Briza commanded, with a hint of amusement in her voice.

"I promise you, it will not get a scratch. I'll keep an eye on it all night and tomorrow morning I will travel to Kaas city. Depending on my next delivery order, I expect it will reach it's destination tomorrow evening" Jent assured her with a confident smile.

"Very good. Just make sure you deliver it, before you return." Briza demanded with a cool and determined expression.

"Yes my lord, everything is understood," Jent bowed and got to work arranging the containers together, so it looked as if it had always been there.

After seeing her brother placed in between the other identical containers, Briza turned around and headed back to the academy.

* * *

On the way to her chamber, Briza was intercepted by one of guards who came running after her. She turned around to face the guard.

The guard paused gathering courage before relayed the message. "My lord... I came to inform you, your brother is dead,"

"How did this happen!?" Briza demanded to know, doing her best to sound both shocked and angry with a hint of sadness. Using the very real feeling of sadness she felt to fuel the deception.

The guard began the long and difficult task of explaining her brothers presumed death, 'in their eyes' the death of a _nobody_ not fit to be taught at the akademy.

"Who did this!" Briza demanded, trying her best to put on a mask of rage.

"Another acolyte named Grimt have been seen heading away from site in question" The guard informed. He respectfully handed over a bloodied and broken training saber.

Briza accepted the broken weapon and gave it a quick glance. In 'rage' she then smashed the saber onto the floor, where it splintered into dozens of pieces. "clean that up!" she commanded with malice in her voice, spun on her heels and marched to her chamber.

Back in her chamber, she lay down flat on the bed. She was both pleased, that Terrow had been added to a long list of dead acolytes without anyone suspecting anything, and at the same time in fear of a mistake in her brothers planning. Strategizing had always been one of his strong suits though and hopefully it would be sufficient to survive on Dromund Kaas.

Hours of mental turmoil went by, before sleep finally overcame her.


	3. Episode 0: Prologues: Part 3

CORUSCANT: early morning.

Next day Mathorn woke feeling well rested despite the criticized bed, apparently it was something you had to get use to before it felt natural.

After sitting on the bed for a short while, he opened the door and wandered outside.

Stepping into the corridor he meet the _overly polite_ human named Jonathan Baliss, who too just had left his chamber. In contrast to Mathorn though, he was clean and _groomed._ He smiled and greeted Mathorn politely. "Good morning fellow initiate Xastra. I hope you had a good night's sleep"

"Do all of you speak so retarded? Or is it just you?!" Mathorn insulted openly.

"Have I offended you in anyway?" Jonathan asked, uncertain of how dire the situation had become.

"Come _on_! Why do you speak like _that_!? It's _weird_. YOU ARE WEIRD!" Mathorn shouted, sounding way angrier, than he actually was, to the now frightened human.

"Is there something wrong youngling" an elderly human female jedi master asked.

"Master Odoum, I only asked if initiate Xastra had slept well!" Jonathan explained in a sad and confused voice.

"Well, I came here to learn how to fight with a lightsaber and this _thing_ seemed only to talk gibberish. I want a rival, not a protocol droid" Mathorn commented harshly.

Ginnati Odoum looked at them both with a firm expression. "Now now children, this is no place for a fight. Both of you can join me, my lesson is just about to start"

"Yes master Odoum" Jonathan said, obeying at once and followed the master dutifully.

Mathorn who had never liked authorities much just asked "and what are you suppose to teach us?" doubting this old lady would be of much use in a battle.

"I'm your history teacher" Ginnati replied as matter of fact.

"What a waste of time" Mathorn complained in a mocking tone.

That last statement sounded so rude, that Jonathan couldn't help but eye him in disbelief.

"Now now young one, history is _very_ important, but you will soon learn why this is so or be _doomed_ to repeat _centuries_ of mistakes" Ginnati stated in a soft voice laced with just a hint of dire warning.

Mathorn didn't reply. He just wondered how long he had to wait before getting a lightsaber in his hands.

As all the initiates was walking past, one youngling in particular stood out, walking slower than the rest. "Morning, you all look alive today. That's good" Urr'Tar mumbled as a greeting, seeming strangely drowsy. "Hi Mathorn"

Ginnati gave Urr'Tar a look of wonder. "I sense great potential in you young one"

Mathorn raised an eyebrow. "Who! Urr'Tar?! Him who has trouble mentally staying in this world?"

"That is _exactly_ the point! He sees the world differently from how most beings do" Ginnati said, trying to explained a higher plane of existence.

Mathorn started to laugh uncontrolled.

Ginnati gave him a hard look of disapproval "You have much to learn, child" whereafter she strolled to the front of the group to guide the gathered initiates to the lesson.

"Sure thing granny... you make him the hero, if you want to" Mathorn chuckled as a reply, going unheard by most.

"Were you talking about... me?" Urr'Tar asked in a dragged out manner.

"Sure thing friend, you are the talk of the town" Mathorn replied joking.

"That sounds good..." Urr'Tar said in a trance like state.

"You can't call Coruscant a town" Jonathan pointed out, as the sentence just didn't seem right to him.

Mathorn ignored him altogether. The large group of younglings made their way into the lesson chamber.

The day's topic was the history of the jedi temple here on Coruscant.

Mathorn felt tortured, not that he hadn't subjected to boring story telling before, but everything the jedi master said, felt like vibroblades to his ears. He was pretty surprised when he _didn't_ feel blood running from his ears.

Jonathan sat straight backed and attentive, but as the lesson progressed the posture gradually slipped in favor of a creeping restlessness.

Urr'Tar just looked more or less _spaced out_ the entire lesson.

Mathorn would have giving his left arm right then to be able to just ignore everything around him, like the Mirialan was doing to perfection.

After what felt like an eternity the impossible happened, the lesson ended! It was finally time for something more exciting, it was time to learn... how all this force stuff actually works. Still not saber training though...

Mathorn had been considered strong in the force, but when he was tasked with lifting a few small white cubes he had trouble lifting even one. After half an hour of continuous practise, he finally succeeded... sort of, infact he just slammed them up against the roof. The master told him several times to calm himself, but listing and concentrated at the same time seemed to be more of a challenge than his multitasking abilities was capable of handling. When the lesson ended later that day no one was the least bit in doubt of _it_ not being one of his _strong suits_ from the relentless stream of complaints flowing from his mouth.

Jonathan, who had trained for more than a half a year already, had no trouble lifting several cubes at once and was more than ready to continuing to more challenging tasks.

Urr'Tar had, at first, no more luck than Mathorn, but suddenly all his cubes had flown onto his face, as if it was some kind magnet.

At last the lesson the eager zabrak had been waiting for all day. The fencing lesson!

When Reniuz, the jedi knight he had met the previous day, had handed Mathorn an orange training blade, he just stood there feeling the handle before finally turned it on. Everything that had felt boring and meaningless the entire day, was erased and replaced with a feeling of wonder and excitement.

He took a quick series of swings to test the weight and general feel of the blade. It was not like a real lightsaber. The blade was of a glass like substance formed in a cylinder shape with a simple hilt in one end. When turned on, the cylinder became orange which gave it a more lightsaber like feel to it.

Reniuz decided to give him and Urr'Tar a little beginners lesson in the first saber form; Shii-cho.

Both were given a training dummy to practicing on. Reniuz started by showing them, step by step, how to strike at the different body zones.

Mathorn was happier now, than he had ever been as far back as he could remember. This was the most fun he had ever had!

At first Urr'Tar had trouble turning his yellow blade on. Then when he finally did so, he had trouble of sensing distance, which meant for the most part that he didn't even hit the doll. And to make it even worse he also had trouble following the instruction set, since the explanation he got was way too fast for him to follow.

The time when by while Reniuz showed off the basic parry- and guard-positions.

After they had practiced basic Shii-Cho style fencing on the practice dolls, Mathorn suddenly exclaimed "Let's have a dual!" challenging his trainer in a moment of pure eagerness.

Reniuz just smiled softly in return and suggested "Ask one of your fellow Initiate, if they would like to spar with you".

"Sure... now _where_ did my rival go?" Mathorn wondered, as he looked around for _a_ human aristocrat.

Jonathan was in the middle of training his disarming skills, when an orange glow began shining over his shoulder, simultaneously hearing a voice calling "I challenge you to dual human!".

Jonathan turned around and uttered with a smile "I accept". With a small bow of respect, he positioned his blade in a high guard and waited for the opponent to make his move.

Mathorn attacked, lunging left, then right, followed by slashes up and down. The adrenalin was pumping through him as it felt like the blade became an extension of his arm.

While Mathorn did well against the training doll, it was entirely a different matter against a live opponent. On top of that an opponent with far more experience than he. This meant that he, without noticing it, all of a sudden was parring instead of attacking, getting hit multiple times on his arms and legs. It culminated with Jonathan landing a swift, yet hard hit to the left side of Mathorn's head, which sent him crashing to the floor where he lay sprawling on the ground winded and completely baffled.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean for you to get hurt!" Jonathan looked frightened by what his violence, from just a moment before, had resulted in, but to his surprise, Mathorn was actually started to laugh laying flat on the floor as he was.

"You _are_ good at something. You are good at being a rival" Mathorn told him being a good sport, as he quickly got up and attacked with an overhead slash.

Jonathan quickly parried it and retaliated, he was also starting to enjoy this.

Reniuz used the remainder of the lesson on instructing Urr'Tar in simple steps of strike and parry, but she did occasionally glanced over at the two sparring Initiate's getting along in the heat of battle.

After the training session ended the jedi Initiates headed back to their individual rooms or the library for study.

Jonathan and Mathorn was on their way back to the living quarters when Jonathan broke the silence with an observation."I must say Mathorn, you really are a fast learner. If you can keep that up, you should be able to catch up in good time"

"I did learn how to kickass in my hometown. I'll be a jedi knight in no time" Mathorn smirked self satisfied.

"Of course you will. You are related to padawan Tikala Xastra after all" Jonathan added as a matter of fact.

Mathorn shrugged "I do have a similar last name, should that make any difference" he muttered indifferently not expecting an answer.

"Wait... you don't know!?" Jonathan replied a bit puzzled.

Mathorn gave him an odd look "Know what? I know she is my cute littlesister and if anyone dares to harm her I will beat them senseless"

Jonathan wondered why the jedi masters hadn't told him. When he couldn't find an answer to his self imposed question, he simply decided to relay what information he possessed on the matter. "You see, your sister is one of a kind and is said to be extremely strong in the force. She mastered the Ataru far faster than most other students could dream of. She even learned how to perform several forms of Tutaminis, years ahead of what's considered normal for a padawan."

Mathorn stood trying to process what the human were telling him and decided to go to the source "I'm going to go ask her myself... Where is my littlesister by the way?" Mathorn asked Jonathan, thinking the human knew where they had hidden his sister.

Jonathan thought for a moment, trying to remember where he had seen the little prodigy last. "I saw her in the garden the other day, at about this hour"

"What are you waiting for! Lead on" Mathorn commanded with impatience audible in his voice.

Jonathan did as he was told, and led the way, with Urr'Tar trailing Mathorn as if someone had programmed him to do so.

* * *

Later that day, the trio found Tikala together with a purple Twi'lek girl, who looked to be about the same age. They were meditating on the soft grass near one of the many statues of masters from ancient times.

"Hey sis" Mathorn bursted out, as he and his fellow initiates entered the garden.

"Hello Mathorn. This is my friend, Mile'giko" Tikala politely replied introduced him to a friend of hers.

"It's an honor to meet you Mathorn" Mile'giko said respectfully while bowed deeply.

To say Mathorn didn't know what to do, was an understatement "...Ahh... sure thing little twin tails... hi you..."

"Can you fly with those?" Urr'Tar asked, adding a random question as usual, but this time looking strangely hopeful.

Now it was Mile'giko who didn't know what to do or say. "No... I can't fly. None of my kind can"

"...That's a shame" Urr'Tar mumbled, the sadness visible on his face.

Turning his attention back to Tikala, he asked "I heard from.. _that_ guy, that _my_ little sis is really awesome!?" Pointing a finger at Jonathan.

Tikala had heard the term 'awesome' before, it was used to describe something _good_? Coming back to her sense she had a feeling she knew what he meant, so she told him what she had been told.. again , and again… And again "Everyone keeps saying I'm going to be great jedi, if I continuing my training"

"Your sister can lift a starship, and she is always so good at fighting. I feel safe when I'm near her" Mile'giko told the Trio, as if her friend was some sort of celebrity.

Tikala kinda liked the attention, but it also made her feel uneasy.

"Show me sis! I want to see how _cool_ you are" Mathorn exclaimed in excitement.

Tikala felt conflicted. She had been warned by her masters never to display it openly, because of the danger it could entail. "Sorry Mathorn, but I have been warned against showing of my abilities to anyone"

"Come on _sis_ , I won't tell anyone" Mathorn promised, missing her point completely. To further underline his words, he turned toward the others gathered and spoke in a clearly threatening tone "If anyone talks! It's bashing time"

"There is no need for threats here" a Kel'dorian jedi master interrupted calmly in a deep slightly modulated voice, as he approached the group of younglings.

"Master Buz!" Mile'giko said with joy in her voice, as she recognized the jedi master.

Buz laid a hand on Tikala's shoulder "It's alright, you can show your brother"

"Thank you master," Tikala smiled as she looked up at the towing figure. She chose a target for the demonstration, closed her eyes and stretched out her fingers. Reaching out mentally, she started lifting one of the stone status, five times larger and thirty times heavier than her. It hovered slowly but surely up in the air where after it slowly rotated about its own axis, as if it was on display.

Jonathan and Urr'Tar were both overly impressed, but Mathorn could barely believe his own eyes! His littlesister was moving around with statues, while he couldn't even lift a little cube without something going wrong, "that's... definitely awesome!"

"Add the two next it" Buz ordered in a monotone voice, making a quick flick of his hand. As ordered, two other statues joined the first, hovered about a meter over the ground, while it continued to rotated as before. Normally he would have denied students to practice on their old jedi status, but he knew _this_ little zabrak could do it without any need of worry.

"Okay... that's just insane! Sis... the force _is_ with you" Mathorn exclaimed loudly, in sheer admiration.

The sudden outburst, made Tikala lose focus for a fraction of a second, but she kept her calm and thereby remained in control. But enough was enough. She returned the statues to their original positions and opened her eyes to see everyone staring at her, all the while smiling. She couldn't help but smile herself.

Mathorn was so gripped with emotion that he couldn't contain it, ran over and gave his sister the biggest hug he had ever given anyone, even bigger than the one he gave his mother before he left for Coruscant.

Overwhelmed by the physical way her brother expressed his emotions, Tikala blanked out as she was lifted up in the air. All his emotions was too much for her tuned senses.

Jonathan and Mile'giko, both wondered if they should intervene and stop Mathorn, but the keldorain master did nothing, so nor did they.

"They are cute together" Urr'Tar uttered with a smile, as he joyfully watched Mathorn dance around with Tikala.

" _The boy has much passion. I wonder if he will ever be able to control it completely"_ Buz wondered for himself _"Did we make the right decision to let him train among us? Only time will tell"_

Mathorn finally sat the _now_ dizzy littlesister down.

"Are you alright Tikala?" Mile'giko asked, worried about her friends wellbeing. Actually she was starting to be a bit afraid of this so called brother. He seemed wild and out of control. He was nothing like what she had expected him to be, nothing like her sweet and calm friend.

Tikala took a moment to reply, and when she did, it was in a dizzy manner "I... think so"

Mathorn just padded his sister on her spiky head while uttering "Of course you are, you are _my_ AWESOME! Littlesister! You can take much more than just a few statues, right sis?"

Buz decided, that this was the time to intervene "That's enough Initiates, you all should go to your rooms and meditated on what you have experienced today." Buz commanded in a deep and friendly, yet firm voice.

"Yes master Buz" Tikala, Mile'giko and Jonathan said in unisons. Tikala was glad for the little relief, Mile'giko was glad to have an excuse to get away from Mathorn, Jonathan who had taken a backseat, just accepted the order as it was.

That left the two newcomers "Seriously! But it was just getting fun?!" Mathorn complained loudly, staring angrily at the jedi master.

The rest of the group just looked in disbelief as Mathorn disobeyed a direct order from a master.

"Go to your room" Buz inforced, with a hint of irritation in his deep synthetic voice.

"You are not telling me what to do OLD SPIES!" Mathorn spat back. Now he was getting really angry.

Buz waved his hand in front of the upstart zabrak, while uttering the following words "You want to go to you room and think on your behavior"

"I want to go to my room and think on my behavior" he replied in a distant, entranced voice. He turned around and wandered off like a robot.

"Why is Mathorn walking so weird? Is he drunk?" Urr'Tar muttered. To Urr'Tar _,_ this had been a fun show, with a _bit_ peculiar ending.

"Come on Urr'Tar, we should have been back by now" Jonathan called, urging him to follow.

"Okay" Urr'Tar replied in a low voice, where after he turned to the jedi master and said good bye in his own special way "have a nice day scary man, don't murder people"

Buz chuckled a little, and replied in a friendly, but sarcastic tone "farewell Initiates. I promise no one is going to be murdered"

Urr'Tar gave him an extremely wide and delighted smile, turned around and followed after Jonathan.


	4. Episode 0: Prologues: Part 4

KORRIBAN: SITH ACADEMY

Two months after Terrow had escaped, Briza wandered about in her chamber. She was getting ready for the tournament, she had to admit that life was much easier now that she no longer had to protect her brother. Despite that she had been training harder than ever before, it still felt like she had much more time on her hand.

Now she just wondered if _this_ part of their master plan would work out, but it was a risk worth taking, she kept telling herself.

She dressed herself in her light and flexible bodyarmor. She made a quick inspection of her training warblade, she turned it on and made a few simple swings with it, before turning it off again and heading out.

Beyond the arena, she and fifteen other warriors now sat on the bench, waiting their turn to enter and fight for their future place in the sith hierarchic.

As she sat down, Briza spotted Grimt who was seated a little away from her. He too looked back at her with a look of greedy expectation, impatiently awaiting the moment where she held up her end of the bargain.

Briza kinda hoped that he would lose before she met him in battle, but she doubted many of the others would be much match for him and his strong dark powers.

One after another, they entered the arena. After the fight one came out returning to his seat, whereas the other, injured and broken, were sent directly back to their chambers, like the rest of the fallen, to await orders of deployment in the imperial army.

After a half an hour, she was called in, to fight a blond human female who was a head shorter than her. Briza could sense her opponent was engulfed in the dark side. As soon as the order was giving the human attacked, in an explosion of chaotic movement. Briza quickly had to block a flurry of strikes, but aside from this display of blazing hatred, she herself held every other advantage. She was taller; thereby having a longer reach, she was stronger, faster, and had a much stronger connection to the force.

With a swift and precise low swing of her blade, she hit the humans right hand thereby causing the opponent's training saber to drop and even before it hit the ground, Briza reached out with the force and blade flew into her free hand.

The human was livid with rage, and with no weapon on her. She summed her power and with both hands unleashed crackling purple force lightning at Briza, who just blocked it with the two warblades, while approaching her in a steady pace.

Briza sighed as her opponent ceased using darkside lightning and uttered in dismissive tone "This is getting boring. I'm going to end this now" she could feel her opponent's fear growing. She fed on her fear, savouring it for a moment, before throwing the other saber aside. She raised her left hand and unleashed her own, noticeably stronger, blue force lightning.

The female human tried to jump away, but too late. She was shocked by the lighting, collapsing and losing consciousness almost immediately, only sporadic spasms left from the jolt.

Briza was declared the winner and walked back to her seat to wait for her next battle, all the while the little human got carried to the infirmary.

An hour past and she had fought two other opponents, both too weak to be any challenge. One she smacked into the sealing over the arena, the other fell to her blade after only two strikes on her part. She had noticed that Grimt also had been winning his battles and after the last fight, only six of them remained. Now both she and Grimt was sent to the arena. Briza rose up and prepared for the battle she had to lose, if she wanted her brother to remain in the imaginated grave they had dug for him.

As they stood out in the arena preparing to fight each other. Briza considered the possibility of _accidentally_ killing him during the fight. It would be believed that she had just been furious over her brother's death, but she knew that Grimt would have been smart enough to have some sort of backup plan. She shrugged the thought out of her head, as she light up her war blade and held it in a high guard, ready to meet his blade head on.

Grimt was first to move, attacking with a series chaotic strikes, typical that of a Joyo user, but Briza deflected it all with ease, as she was faster and physically the stronger of the two. She countered with her own chaotic moveset, but as planned, Briza did not put any significant amount of energy or strength behind any of her strikes and cleaves, which gave Grimt the time to change into the Djem-so style of fighting. He blocked her attacks and with all his strength, countered with a powerful overhead cleave.

Briza could easily have sidestepped and slammed or kicked his blade out of his hand, but instead she blocked it clumsily, giving him a clear signal that she was playing along. She was making it look like the death of her brother somehow had drained her and weakened her resolve, but she wasn't going to let him win so easily. She quickly stepped backwards to give her enough distance to meet him anew, their blades clashing with a sound of energized static.

Grimt made an overhead slash for the red zabrak's head, but it was a feint, to lure her hands up high.

Briza knew what he was doing, but decided it was time to end it. She followed the faint, which made her vulnerable to strikes from the belt and below.

Grimt saw that she was falling for his maneuver, intentional or not, and swiftly slashed much lower than expected from a typical head slash.

Briza reacted to the change by _trying_ to block the attack, changing the blade positioned ninety degrees, but too slow for it to matter, getting hit on the wrist. While a training saber didn't kill, it did make painful shock waves, which made her entire hand and part of her arm numb from pain.

Seeing the sudden advantage, Grimt quickly force pushed her saber out Briza's hand, sending the blade flying away, clattering to the arena floor.

Briza playing the amature, used her left hand to call the blade back, instead of getting out of danger first, leaving her wide open. She felt an extremely painful jolt in her stomach, which made her involuntarily bend over in pain.

Grimt danced around the now helpless zabrak, first hit her left arm, then the the right leg, finishing with a stab in the back, sending burning pain through her spine. She fell to the sandstone floor landing on her stomach, the crowd gasped as she stopped moving and lay still.

Grimt crouched down to whispered in her ear "I hope your brother was worth it.." but Briza was too weak to reply... Or so it seemed.

A moment later she was carried out of the stadium towards the infirmary by medical droids to recover.

* * *

Briza opened her eyes again fifteen minutes later, finding herself laying on a bench in the infirmary, the droids had given her a few kolto injection, which made her feel a bit lightheaded. Most of the pain from earlier was gone and she felt fresh enough to leave the infirmary. She decided to watch what was left of the tournament from the spectators' tribune. She decided against taking a seat, instead she just stood behind a stone pillar. Looking down over the arena, where her latest opponent was battling... what could best be described as a sith pureblood titan, named Vendictous.

To her knowledge, this gigantic beast had one of the worst reputations in all of the academy's history. He was extremely aggressive, with no understanding of the word _mercy_. He had caused the death of several acolytes over the years, leaving a considerable amount of collateral damage to everything from equipment, to the structure of buildings. The juggernaut was known for his insane physically strength and for having enough force power to make him dangerous even from afar.

She watched as Grimt was being choked by a powerful force grip around his throat, while simultaneously being pressed up in midair, just to mash him into the ground, accompanied by the sounds of breaking bones, blood splattering all over the arena floor. If not for one of the sith lords ordering the _monster_ to stop thrashing the screaming pitiful worm, he would have ripped, the already _close to dying,_ Grimt to pieces.

Vendictous roared victoriously, while the sith lords observing from the other end of the tribune praised his fighting prowess and argued amongst themselves, who would take him for apprentice.

Briza was very uncertain if she could have defeated him. He was much taller and much heavier than her. She would only have had speed as her ally and maybe a few more force tricks in her arsenal, but she couldn't even be certain of that. She had seen enough and retired to her quarters.

Later that day, Briza received the message to come to one of the instructor's office at once and as expected, she was greeted with disgust. "I'm extremely disappointed in you acolyte, the death of your brother have made you weak. You should have use your hatred of him to fuel your power, instead you failed like a helpless little gizka" she spat at Briza in distaste and added in the same tone "I doubt any of the dark lords will want you now, instead you will be sent to the frontline to serve in the imperial military as a simple sith warrior. You are dismissed"

Briza bowed and left without showing any emotions, but inside she was smiling. The plan had worked well so far, Terrow was out of harm's way and with regards to the sith lords... they had planned ahead.

* * *

Later that night, when her injury was no longer an issue, Briza had without anyone noticing, sneaked upstairs to one of the dark lords private chambers, namely the chambers of the powerful Darth Veness. Even from the outside Briza could feel a dark force presence so powerful that she could almost taste it.

Stood right outside, she took a deep breath, gathering courage to what was needed, to prove her worth... and the only way, was in person. She pressed the buzzer, after no response was given, she used the force to rip the metal door open, without damaging it _too_ much in the process.

The chamber was dimly lit and the walls were covered in expensive decorative hangings. A huge desk was placed in the center of the room. It was made from some sort of dark wood unknown to her. On top of the desk several holoprojectors were showing documents written in hieroglyphs she couldn't decipher.

The dark lord seated at her work desk, was a tall, thin, marrone skinned pureblood sith, with a narrow face visibly consumed by the dark side. She looked up at the intruder suddenly coming into view. She was more than a little surprised to find this _zabrak_ on her doorstep "If it isn't the great failure of today" Veness laughed sinisterly as she took a better look at the acolyte "you got some nerve shoving up on my doorstep, uninvited!" her eyes borrowed into Briza's "speak or I will strike you down where you stand"

Briza mentally prepared herself, then answered with as much confident as she could muster "My lord, I want to show you my true power"

Darth Veness laughed even louder "So you are telling me that you have been holding back all this time?" Had the acolyte gone _mad_ from failure? To her, it definitely seemed so.

"Exactly" Briza replied with a voice as cool as she could make it.

"It is so long ago, that I have had the pleasure to punish weaklings, like _yourself_ " Veness grinned with her wicked red eyes gleaming in anticipation. She rose, standing in her full height, pulling and turned on her crimson red lightsaber in one fluid motion, whereafter without any warning she launched herself at Briza with blinding speed.

But Briza had anticipated it, turned on her yellow training-saber and entered into a ready Djem-so battle stand. She parried the incoming strike an instant before her right arm would have been cut off _"Now or never"_ Briza thought. She quickly focused her anger and summed the dark side to her aid her. With raw power she pushed Veness blade back and moved on the offensive, utilizing her superior strength, speed and precision.

Veness was baffled, her strike that should have left the bothersome zabrak crippled and defenseless, had been blocked with ease! And now.. her defenses was being hammered, blow after blow she praied the onslaught, with no indication of an opening to go back on the offensive.

Concerned that she was being pushed into a corner, Veness used the force to hurl Briza up against the wall with a loud slam, but that only momentarily stopped Briza as she landed on her feet. Ignoring the pain, she renewed her attack with the more chaotic and fast paced fencing style of Joyo.

For a time their blades were moving so fast they would be difficult to see without the help of the force. Veness was so impressed by the stamina of this young zabrak, that she decided to test her endurance and pain-tolerance. She force pushed Briza away to get some distance and followed it up by spreading her fingers and firing a series of force lightning at the acolyte before she had a chance to get on her feet.

Briza had expected force lightning at some point in their duel, and caught the lightning on her blade, but the training blade was ill equipped to absorbthe kind of dark force energy that a sith lord could unleash. She could feel the hilt's heat rise and threw it away before it exploded in her hands. It landed in between Veness personal art objects, where the saber overheated and went up in flames.

Briza was left completely defenseless, as the Darth renewed her attack. Briza tried to block it with her hands, but to no avail. The dark lightning burned into her skin and she collapsed on to the the stone floor in agony. She wanted to scream, but this was the last place to show weakness and she denied herself that right.

Seeing her opponent had finally fallen to her lightning, Veness returned to the offencive, her blade reignited.

With the lighting extinguished, Briza thought of force pushing Veness away before she was cut in half, but thought better of it when she caught a glimpse of another lightsaber hanging on the wall surrounded by various other decorations. She channel what power she had left and instantly reached for it.

Veness only just noticed her other lightsaber, as it hurtled past her head, before it flew into Briza's hand. The two scarlet blades colieded in a flashing light of sparkles, their faces only centimeters from each other "Have I proven myself yet?" Briza inquired, sounding more staggered than she would have liked.

Their blades locked, Veness expression turned from one of malice into a smile "You have" she disengaged and turned off her lightsaber, gesturing for Briza to do the same.

Briza obeyed and turned the lightsaber off as well "Believe me my lord... I didn't fail in the contest out of weakness or the loss of my brother" she told as matter of fact, still a bit out of breath after their duel.

"Then why did you fail?" Veness demanded to know.

"Because... I want _you_ as my master" Briza revealed, with as much emphasis in her voice as she could muster.

Darth Veness grinned, with a low deep chuckle "You certainly know how to choose your allies"

Briza wanted to produce a smile of her own, but kept it at bay.

In actuality, it was Terrow who had picked Darth Veness as the safest Sith lord, which meant least likely to kill Briza when she didn't need her any longer.

"Bow and swear loyalty to me" Veness demanded as proof of the zabraks words.

Briza obeyed instantly and kneeled before the dark lord "I surrender myself to your teaching... and to your will"

Veness smiled widely in satisfaction, as she looked down at her new pupil "Rise" Veness commanded, awaiting Briza to heed her bidding "The lightsaber you have in your hand, is the weapon of my first rival that I killed. You can have it now"

"Thank you... My master" Briza uttered, honored by receiving such a gift she bowed her head and clipped the saber to her belt.

"Go back to your chamber, and await my orders" Veness instructed with a satisfactory smile. "Soon, we will leave for Dromund Kaas"

"As you command, master" Briza replied with eagerness in her voice. She bowed slightly again before leaving.

* * *

As she walked the academy's halls, she proudly displayed her new rank, the lightsaber in her belt. It made a number of the students stand aside for her and the few who remembered her look on in awe and confusion, as to how the same acolyte, who hours earlier got thoroughly beaten, now has a real lightsaber.

Briza could only smile with glee, as she sat in silence in her chamber, _their_ plan had worked perfectly. Terrow was no longer in danger and she was now an apprentice of a great sith lord, despite being utterly beaten this _very_ eventful day. She decide to pack most of her stuff at once in case she was ordered to hurry. She later found it to be a complete waste of time, when a moment later, a servant droid entered with the sole purpose of packing her stuff, _for_ her.

The droid carried her luggage and led the way to Veness' private yacht, a beautiful ship with a sleek black slender haul, Briza guessed it was about as large as a Fury class interceptor. She spotted her new master talking to one of the academy's instructors. Veness turned her head when she sensed her apprentice approaching "Ahh... their you are child, I hope you ready to depart your former home"

"I am my master" Briza politely replied and walked up next to her new master.

To say that the human instructor was confused, was an understatement "You picked today's failure! we still have better candidates to do your bedding my lord, I'll sent for them all at once"

Veness laughed as a reply, "You don't know what this _failure_ can do" her face turned into an evil grin "I have unlocked her furry. With little training, she would easily be capable of tearing you apart" with that she turned her attention to her new pupil "Come child, I want to get home as quickly as possible" they left the speechless instructor and walked up the ramp.

Briza turned her head toward the instructor sending him a look that said everything and ascended up the ramp.

The human just nodded in slow motion, as the ramp closed behind them. He watched the ship starting it's engines and as the ship took to the sky, disappeared beyond his field of vision.


	5. Episode 0: Prologues: Part 5

CORELLIA: central docking area.

Two years before the treaty of Coruscant.

In one of the many streets near the central spaceport, two jedis disguised as dockworkers on their way home had sat down on a bench as if to rest a bit after the end of a long work shift.

"Yo master. Do we have to sit here much longer? I don't think _imps_ comes here often?" Mathorn complained impatiently while checking his chrono. With a lowered voice, so only his partner could hear it.

A jedi knight named Quti'mebo looked at his pupil with a slightly disapproving frown "Patience my padawan, it have only been half an hour and we need to stay here in case something bad happens" he whispered in return.

As part of their disguise, both of them carried alcoholic looking liqueur with them. Jedi's were not allowed to drink, but to pass the time Mathorn had drunk most of them, so on the surface he definitely looked the part; a typical grumpy drunk "Couldn't they at least imitated the taste better? They are getting irritating to drink"

"You didn't _have_ to drink so many, so fast" Quti'mebo commented, mostly because they were running out of liquor, before it was time to move on.

"Why couldn't we get the better job, this is so boring" Mathorn continued his complaining, Jonathan and his master Reniuz, had gotten the 'better part' of the assignment; infiltrating a possible sith intelligence hideout located on Corellia, mean while _they_ were the observers and backup, incase 'the A team' needed a quick rescue or a simple distraction.

"For the last time.. patience Mathorn, take a deep breath, and relax. If your calm, time matters not" Quti'mebo uttered with a sigh.

Two years ago, Quti'mebo had chosen Mathorn as his apprentice. He believed he could transform Mathorn into a great jedi guardian, but for the most part it was because he was the only one who could tolerate the wild and uncontrollable zabrak. He had only partly succeeded, while Mathorn had become very skilled in blade combat, he was however only able to use a bare minimum of force ability for his age, nowhere _near_ his little sisters capability, but his manners always seemed to be the biggest problem.

Mathorn had grown to be a tall and broad shouldered man, with three inch horns protruding from his forehead.

Quti'mebo was a really tall, green, heavy build twi'lek, with thirty years of experience as a jedi. He was a renowned duelist and reasonable force user.

An explosion shook a build a few clicks away, sending debris and shattered glass flying everywhere, immediate followed by the sound of a distress call "THAT'S MORE LIKE IT!" Mathorn exclaimed completely ecstatic, like an addict in a spice store, and rushed to the now burning building with his master right at his heel.

"MATHORN STOP!" Quti'mebo shouted as a warning.

Mathorn ignored the warning at first, until his senses screamed DOWN! The next instant a speeder came flying right at him at high a velocity. He threw himself down in a roll, but too slow. It's underside grazed him, resulting in both he _and_ the speeder colliding with the nearest skyscraper. The building was more or less unscaved, which could not be said for the speeder which was lying in a thousands pieces scattered all over the plaza. Mathorn was bleeding and unconscious with a few broken bones, but remained alive. Had he been hit head-on, he would most certainly be dead now.

Quti'mebo tried to get to him as fast as possible, but two black robed figures, who had commandeered the speeder, stepped in front of him blocking his way. One was a tall and heavy sith pureblood, the other a more slender but also muscular human "That's one taken cared of, the next will be dead in a minute" the human spoke with an evil grin on his lips. They ignited their bright red lightsabers.

Quti'mebo could sense Mathorn was still among the living and turned to the immediate threat at hand. He turned on his blue lightsaber and entered into the defensive stand of soresu, to meet the incoming attack. The pureblood attack with a high amount of quick jabs and precise strikes, probing the jedis defenses to find a weak point, all the while Quti'mebo fought to make sure they couldn't flank him.

Mathorn opened his eyes, dizzy and with a headache the size of the skyscraper he had just become acquainted with, it took him a moment to make sense of the world around him. When he finally realized his master was in a tight spot, he got up... Despite looking like someone that belonged in a hospital bed. He rushed in to aid his master. His yellow lightsaber sprang to life, as he took up a high guard gripping the handle with both hands, ready to cleave the smaller of the sith in half.

The human of the two sith warriors turned to intercept the incoming padawan.

Mathorn made a high overhead cleave, with enough power to break through the sith warriors defenses, but the human just danced out of harm's way, making a quick jab at his torso. Mathorn quickly blocked the jab, but the sith followed up the attack with more thrusts and fast strikes. In the middle of their duel, the sith suddenly shifted target from the injured Mathorn. Seeing his chance, he threw his lightsaber at the dueling jedi knight.

Quti'mebo just barely noticed the saber throw in time, quickly cutting the hilt in two before it severed his head, but the counter left an opening in his seemingly tight defenses. A microsecond later he was staggered, feeling a burning pain jab into his right shoulder as the red blade cut ever deeper.

Seeing his masters peril, he tried to leap over, the now saberless, sith. That same instant, he was force pushed away, slamming him hard into the nearby building.

From his position against the wall, Mathorn could only watch in horror as his master was struck down, mercilessly beheaded. His head rolling a meter, the headtail slapping against the duracrete all the while, before coming to a halt, facing the reddening sky above. The knights dead unseeing eyes, experiencing the sunset one last time.

The saberless sith, called the jedi knight's lightsaber to him "Nice, a little souvenir". He ignited the blue saber, and pointed it at the wounded padawan "Your turn" he grinned wickedly.

Mathorn rose up from the ground, his blood boiling. He could feel the force rushing through him like a hurricane "BIG MISTAKE!" he screamed in pure rage, and charged right at them.

The sith's, pleased, just smiled back at him, as they readied themselves to meet his charge. They were greeted with a flurry of motion as they clashed sabers with the furious zabrak padawan.

For a time, Mathorn was able to keep up with the two siths. He used all his energy to hammer them back, countering every time one or both them, tried to go on the offencive. The fight continued that way until the sith with the blue lightsaber locked Mathorn's blade in a position facing the ground. The other sith, recognizing weakness, quickly leaped to cut the defenseless zabrak down for good.

In a split second, Mathorn saw his doom closing in behind him. In a desperate move, he quickly reached out with his free left-hand and force pushed the sith with as much energy he could muster, saving himself mere inches before being decapitated.

Thinking back, the first thing the red skinned sith remembered was a sudden boom of air-pressure; the second, being sent hurdling through the air; and the final thing he remembered before bleeding to death in terrible agony, was him hanging on a durasteel statue, with a lance protruding through his light armors abdominal section.

Down below, the human siths facial expression changed from confidence to horrification in seconds. Using his fear as fuel, he launched an erratic series of Joyo style slashing attacks.

Though weakened by the siths sudden retaliation, Mathorn had regained some confidence in his abilities and was now fighting to bring down the last obstacle in his quest for vengeance.

The fight was a chaotic display of bladework, with neither side getting an advantage before being countered by the other. Now sirens could be heard in the distance and soon the following words could be heard through a loudspeaker "SITH! YOU ARE SURROUNDED! LAY DOWN YOUR WEAPON AND SURRENDER PEACEFULLY! OR YOU WILL BE TERMINATED!"

Followed by the two other jedi's running in to assist, if the need should arrive.

"It would be a good idea to hand over the _stolen_ lightsaber, now" Mathorn suggested with an evil grin, a clear hint of hatred audible in his voice.

The sith was livid to say the least, "One day, you will regret this" he spat in anger, but relented the weapon to Mathorn.

Mathorn just laughed at him in return "I don't know about one day, but you will regret this NOW!" he stabbed the sith in the shoulder with his yellow lightsaber, the sith sank down in pain "See the difference, you make threats and I make reality" he mocked the sith in pure glee.

"JEDI! STEP AWAY FROM THE SITH! OR FACE PROSECUTION!" The Corellian police force warned firmly.

Only now, did Mathorn realized that he _might_ have overstepped his authority "HEY! HE KILLED MY MASTER, I just made sure no one else was going be killed" he tried to excuse his actions while backing away, as five men in uniform took the sith prisoner into custody. The two fellow jedi's walked over to Mathorn.

Mathorn could see he wasn't the most popular at that moment, so he tried to explain in advance "Well... he and the other sith killed my master..."

"He was unarmed! And had already surrendered to us!" Reniuz scolded him for his vendetta "But enough of that. Come, let's see to your master first. We _will_ speak of your mistreatment of prisoners afterwards." she said to him softly, sorrow creeping into her voice.

Mathorn said nothing and just followed Reniuz and his friend Jonathan. They carried his master's corpse over to a taxi that was waiting for them in a relatively safe distance.

* * *

CORUSCANT: JEDI TEMPLE

After a lengthy lecturing and scolding by the jedi council, who gave him a final warning, that if he repeated the incidents again, he would be banished from the jedi order permanently. When he was finally released, he felt tired and miserable. He just wandered to his chamber, to be alone.

But it didn't take long before someone entered his chamber unannounced "Hi Mathorn... I sense you are sick... maybe you're changing your skin" Urr'Tar suggested in his usual drowsy tone.

"Not now Urr'Tar, I'm depressed" Mathorn muttered with despair in his voice.

"Ohh... I sense you are depressed, if you want to live... " Urr'Tar mumbled without finishing the sentence. For a moment he just stood there, like he was frozen down or something. Then he turned around and walked back out of the door.

Mathorn didn't really listen, Urr'Tar's randomness just didn't suit the moment. It wasn't long though, before his solitude again was interrupted, as Urr'Tar returned holding some kind orange plant in his hand.

"You will die from lunge acid if, you don't eat this plant at once," Urr'Tar urgently and ripped a piece off and stuck it right in front of Mathorn's face.

"If it makes you leave, sure whatever" Mathorn replied irritably and ate the strange orange plant. It tasted weird, like someone had taken a sour vegetable and poured salt and sugar all over it.

"Now you are finally healed..." Urr'Tar mumbled while ripping a piece off, for himself. He sat down in the bed, right next to Mathorn.

* * *

A little later, Jonathan carefully slid the door opened and was about to whisper if his friend needed anything, but to his utter disbelief, he didn't find a sad and depressed Mathorn. What he found _instead_ was a happy and _very_ relaxed Mathorn.

" _Yoooo_ Jonathan, come inside and have a piece, it _totally_ fixes your worries" Mathorn invited, with the biggest smile he had ever made in his entire life.

"Eh?..." Jonathan didn't have a clue as to what he should reply, so he asked the first thing that came to mind "are you drunk?"

"I have... given him the... medicine to save him from... _e-evil_ " Urr'Tar explained slowly, also very happy and relaxed.

Jonathan was about to reply something, if it was not for a little orange thing floating closer and closer to his mouth, "No, I don't want to be drunk!"

Mathorn, now looking very firmly at his friend, as he spoke "He is not eating it, let's tickle him until he does!"

And before the poor aldoranian, had a chance of running away, he was grabbed by his _so_ called friends and a storm of tickling commenced "STOP, STOP!" he screamed and laughed all at the same time "OKAY, OKAY! I give in, let me have a piece, but only a very little one".

Three minutes later, Jonathan _too_ was overly happy and the feeling of wonder was everywhere "This is wonderful, if every sith ate one of these, there wouldn't be waged any wars, and we could all live in peace and harmony"

"That's _sooo_ true, maybe master green would still be alive" Mathorn joyfully agreed, while continuing his ongoing extreme smile, as he noticed someone looking down on him "I see master green looking down on me... I don't think he is real"

"You are all real people, and that's why I love you" Urr'Tar smiled lovingly all the while eating the rest of the plant himself.

"Urr'Tar! You ate all of the plant... It was supposed to be for all of us!" Mathorn exclaimed in shock, still smiling.

"I got another... in my room" Urr'Tar replied calmingly.

"Let's go get it" Mathorn urged and swayed out of the door, with the two others following him in the same swaying manner.

On their way, Jonathan asked a question that had been buckling him "Mathorn... how did you spear the pureblood sith?!"

"Because... I'm awesome, I got a super secret weapon" Mathorn boasted for the fun of it: In truth however, he didn't know. He had just _accidentally_ speared a sith.

As they turned a corner, the jedi master Odoum, who was heading their way, saw the three widely smiling padawans "Urr'Tar, I see you have taught your friends the art of your harmonious aura. I'm so proud of you my _wonderful_ padawan" Ginnati complimented as she passed them in the corridor.

"Does she seriously believed that?" Mathorn asked shaking his head, with his broad smile still plastered to his face.

"I can't" Jonathan replied in all honesty, as he was the most sober of the three.

"Urr'Tar... your master is one dumb old hag" Mathorn commented.

"All light will be... revealed... any day now" Urr'Tar answered from out of nowhere.

Mathorn laughed manically, thinking he had just heard some kind of krytic joke "Whatever you say, good friend"

They entered Urr'Tar's chamber, and witnessed what looked to be a very compressed garden of some sort. All his equipment was covered in plants, even his bed was held up by vines.

"Urr'Tar? How did you get all these plants?" Jonathan asked curiously, it had been sometime since he had been back at the temple, but create this jungle room in less than a half a year quite the feat.

"Master Odoum gave them... to me, the rest... came on their own" Urr'Tar explained, in a slow pace, as words seemed to have trouble getting to him in this state.

Mathorn just jumped down in the vine infested bed and sighed "This is life, Urr'Tar where is the promised plants?!"

Urr'Tar stock a hand in under a bookshelf covered in flowers, and produced another orange plant "These plants here dislikes... light"

Even in this state, Jonathan could still think of other reasons, as to why the plants was hidden away from direct light, but didn't comment on it.

The trio continued their relaxation _therapy,_ until the break of dawn, where none of them were able to do anything other then rest in the jungle world, which was Urr'Tar room.


	6. Episode 0: Prologues: Part 6

DROUMUND KASS: KAAS CITY

One year before the treaty of Coruscant.

Inside one of the many dark-gray skyscrapers; the chamber was large, about four floors high. A three meter high band of transparisteel ran underneath the ceiling along one of the four walls, breaking the otherwise entirely durasteel clad interior. In about half the chambers height a balcony floor dominated the remaining three walls, the durasteel gangway being reflected on the dark tinted walls. On the ground floor red carpets here and there was the only furniture to be seen.

The never ending thunder storm roared outside, as half a dozen lightning strikes tore through the eternally cloud covered sky. Inside a storm of flashing crimson lights was taking place in the center of the arena. Briza was battling a dozen assassin droids, some with blasters and some with vibroblades, all build and programmed specifically to kill her.

Her body had matured into tall muscular figure resembling that of an hourglass, hardent by the past seven years in service to her master Darth Veness. Her horns was now fully grown, protruding out from under her short loosely hanging maroon hair, making them very visible from a distance. She wore a light and flexible dark gray sith battle armor.

While outnumbered, Briza had been trained in the art of dual fencing, also known as the jar'kai two blade saber form. One moment blocking, another deflecting, then dodging and countering multiple attacks from various angles all at once, in her left hand she held the blade she had been giving back on Korriban, in her right her newly made lightsaber, both with red synthetic crystals inside.

While she had her work cut out for her, these droids, designed especially to anticipate her moves and patterns, were droids nonetheless. Familiarity, the lack of intuition and no force ability, made them easy enough to dismantle one by one.

In less than a minute, Briza had cut down half of the droids. When all the droids suddenly shut off, Briza turned around and looked up to see her master observing her from the balcony above.

"You have done well, so well in fact, that I will be sending _you_ on a mission to kill a little jedi nuisance" Darth Veness smiled sinisterly satisfied.

Briza bowed and spoke in humility "As you command Master. Where is this jedi?"

"You will be sent to a planet known as Utapau, in the minos cluster. There you will hunt down a Jedi, who has stubbornly interfered with Imperial intelligence" Veness explained firmly.

"I will depart at once my lord" Briza replied with a quick bow, turned around and headed to the hanger where she took off immediately.

* * *

OUTER RIM: Minos Cluster

After a lengthy trip through hyperspace, Briza finally saw the planet known as Utapau from obite.

Over the ship's comm, she announced her arrival and almost immediately got clearance to land. Most sith lords of her rank had a personal pilot to fly their ship for them, but this was a thing she preferred to do herself, as it was one of the few things she enjoyed doing herself. Ever since her old friend Jent the cyborg-human took her through a spin in an old imperial transporter, she had liked piloting. Sliding through the open reaches of outer-space, all worries seemed to evaporate from her mind.

* * *

UTAPAU: Midday

In what could best be described as a gigantic hole in the planet's surface, Briza landed her fury class imperial interceptor on one of the many protruding platforms, overlooking the main city below. A city build into the clefts dotting the interior of the planetary sinkhole.

One of the indigenous Pau'an dressed in a native brown robe with red stripes, came over to greet the newly arrived sith lord, "Greetings my lord, I hope you had a pleasant journe-"

"Cut the pleasantries, I don't have time for that nonsense. Take me to the Imperial intelligence office at once" Briza commanded in very strict and firm tone of voice, interrupting the official mid sentence.

"Yes... right this way" The Pau'an replied immediate and quickly called for an air taxi.

In less than five minutes, Briza was being briefed on the situation. The jedi had been recruiting, what looked to be some sort of unarmed rebellion. The origin of his motives, however remained unsolved.

Briza, with the help of imperial agents... was now tracking down this enemy, who had been evading the imperial forces for months.

With the force at her command she scoured the countryside, looked through caves and tunnels as possible hideouts, but after a day's search a new reports came in. He had been sited after having stolen food supplies. Despite being tired from the search, Briza went on the hunt again in the middle of the night, the quicker this ordeal was finished, the quicker she could continue her training at her master's side. She jumped on a speeder bike, that had been lent to her by the imperial intelligence and descended out in the cold night and sped towards the south easternmost cleft.

* * *

In a colossal cave beneath the surface was the location her prey had been spotted. More specifically a huge Storage facility surrounded by large shipping containers in all colors, with lanes of huge lamps overhead and steel pillars holding various platforms upright.

"This is the last crate master" a rodian padawan informed with a hint of fatigue in his voice.

"Good, let's head back. I sense we won't have long before trouble will seek us out" An elder human jedi master replied urgently, both having just finished loading a cargo transport with crates.

All of a sudden a speeder bike came from outta nowhere at high speed straight at them. The being clad entirely in black riding the bike jumped off in a somersault, as the bike made an emergency override and activated the brakes to avoid a collision with the crates nearby. The black figure shouted at them to get their fuld attention "I am Lord Briza of the imperial military. I demand your surrender immediately! Or I will cut you down where you stand!" Briza threatened them in a cold voice, as she stood between them and the vehicle.

"Never!" the rodian yelled and force jumped over the newly arrived sith, landing on top of the cargo transport. _But_... just as he did so, a red blade was thrown at his back, with such speed that he barely registered it, before his spine was severed and he layed flat on top of the vehicle with a deep black burn mark across his back.

"No!" was the only thing the jedi master exclaimed, as he ignited his blue lightsaber and prepared himself for the inevitable confrontation.

"Your apprentice was bold, but stupid. Surrender or you will suffer the same fate" Briza firmly proclaimed the ultimatum, as she closed the distance between them and called her lightsaber back to hand, reignited it.

The death of his pupil had weakened the jedi. He struggled to summed an inner calm, as feelings of vengeance, regret and sorrow was creped into his mind.

Briza charged him head on with a brutality and precision, hammered fiercely at his blocks and parries. She was stronger, faster and more agile, than the aging jedi she faced, who's defences was rapidly crumbling.

The sith was driving him backwards at an alarming pace. No matter what he did, she was over him like an angry Tuk'ata. If he tried to jump away, she was there when he landed. If he tried to force push her away, or throw crates at her, she deflected them immediately. He never had time to change fencing stands or use the surrounding properly to his advantage.

While she had to admit, the elder had decent defenses, she easily sensed he was wearing out and would fatigue sooner rather than later. Deciding that waiting was not her style, she shifted her blade to a one hand grip and with the other, ignited her second lightsaber she had tucked away. With a simple, but precise, strike at his head, she forced him to protect his upper body, while Briza made a quick lower swipe with the second blade thereby circumventing his guard, effectively severing his right hand from the rest of the arm.

The pain was unbearable. The jedi sank to the floor in such agony, that it was too painful to utter even a single word. The clattering of his lightsaber on the floor, sounded sharp and hollow to his ears.

"I _told_ you to surrender. Now before I kill you, tell me, what exactly were you doing here _jedi_?!" Briza demanded to know, as her intense green eyes burrowed into his. She was about to choke him to see if added pain would force the information out of him, but to her surprise he spoke.

"Listen sith. I have a colony full of weak force sensitive beings. Beings who would only die, if they entered your accursed academy. They are no threat to anyone!" he exclaimed for emphasis.

Briza felt conflicting feelings start to simmer in her mind. She made up her mind, ordering "Then get them off world, now!"

To say he was astonished would be an understatement, but her feelings told the truth, this was no sadistic trick of evil "Thank you… " He bowed his head in gratitude.

Briza called the jedi's lightsaber to her hand "I will take your lightsaber and your hand, as proof of your demise"

He only nodded in acknowledgement.

"You will manage without these resources" Briza decided firmly. Her presence turned ominous "Take your people out of imperial space. Your business on imperial planets ends today! _And_ if I ever find you again, I will cut you to pieces! _Have I made myself clear?_ " the last part added in a threateningly icy tone.

"Yes... I understand perfectly. You will never see me again" The one handed human complied, and disappeared away in the dark.

Briza didn't want to waste anymore time. She called in the Imperial forces via comm-unite to take it from here and ordered a transport to pick her up.

On-board her ship, she decided on making a holocall before going to hyperspace. Darth Veness answered almost immediately "My apprentice, were you successful in your hunt?"

"Master, my mission was a success. I located two jedi's, both have been _dealt_ with" Briza told twisting the word dealt and showed the two lightsabers belonging to the jedi's in question.

"I am pleased, my promising apprentice" Veness complimented her youthful subordinate.

Briza couldn't help but smile as she lowered her head in respect "Thank you my master. I will return home, to continue my training at once"

"Then I will await your return" Veness smirked and ended the transmission.

Briza took a moment to relax before she made the jump to lightspeed, then she configured the navi computer and set a course to Dromund kaas. That done, she sat down in the pilot's chair and began to ponder the recent events.

Looking at the lightsabers she had _acquired "Have I betrayed the empire in my compassion to save those else doomed to die? Why did I spare their lives, yet having no remorse for killing the little rodian jedi? I guess, it was because he did have a choice, while the others did not"_ she speculated to herself, as she watched the stars pass her by, in the seemingly endless stream of light.


	7. Episode 1: An unknown threat: Part 1

**STAR WARS**

 **THE CRIMSON BLIGHT**

Episode 1: An unknown threat

Fourteen months after the treaty of Coruscant.

THE OUTER RIM: orbiting Dathomir.

On the bridge of the colossal imperial dreadnought Hellfire, Briza together with her master, the tall pure blood sith Darth Veness, were overseeing the creation of a new space station. It was being build primary for controlling the shipping lane to and from Dathomir, but as of now the habitable area functioned as a trading center while the rest of the station was nearing it's completion.

For the last year, the _accursed_ treaty of Coruscant had jeopardised Veness personal plans. She wanted a palace and a new seat of power on the planet of Alderaan. She liked the chilly and comfortable atmosphere and wanted a piece for herself, but she was forced to flee by the republic and later when the empire backed house Thul, she was left out of it by the dark council, much to her irritation.

This meant very little to Briza, peace or war matters not, she were still sent out on missions on her master's behalf. Instead of killing Jedis, she was sent to deal with renegade siths and troublesome bounty hunters. In a sense, she was still just making sure her lord and master kept her elevation over other Darth's influence and kept new sith lords below.

Darth Veness sat in the command chair looking at reports coming in from the nearly completed space station. "Good. Only a week before the station is complete." She muttered somewhat pleased, after having inspected the reports. "Apprentice, you will see to the _finer_ details."

"Yes Master, as you wish." Briza acknowledged, accepting her assignment. _Finer_ details was their word for making sure no one was slacking off.

"I will be in my chambers." Veness informed, rose up and left the bridge.

But before the dark lady was out of the door, one of the comm officers shouted urgently. "My lords! A fire has broken out on the station!"

"Contain it at once!" Briza firmly commanded, as her master hastily walked over to see what was going on.

"All personnel have been alerted, it should be-." A staff member on the station informed, before the transmission was abruptly cut off.

"Reestablish that connection, now!" Veness ordered her subordinate in a dire tone.

Then came an explosion from the station, loud enough that it visibly shook the entire station. Fire could be seen spilling out into the vacuum of space from the upper parts of the installation.

"What's happening!?" Darth Veness immediately demanded to know.

"WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!" A worker screamed before he was brutally gunned down. As the now dead technician lay motionless on the ground, a quick glimpse of the killer's uniform were visible on the monitor, identifying the enemy as troopers all in white.

"REBELS... APPRENTICE! TAKE BACK MY STATION!" Veness demanded enraged, her eyes glowing with hatred.

Briza didn't reply, as she was already blazing out from the bridge. Springing into a turbolift, she hammered the button to the hanger. Few seconds later she arrived to see their force in full swing. Engineers and soldiers rushed from one side of the hanger to the other to get the troop transporter ready, mobilizing to storm the now rebel infested station. Starfighters had already been deployed to disable what defense the station could use against their eminent assault.

One of the lieutenants ran over to report. "Lord Briza! We are ready to launch the assault in one minute."

"Very well." Briza quickly replied. "Bring me to the command shuttle at once."

"Right this way, my lord." Running, the lieutenant quickly led her to one of the troop transport ships, which was hastily being loaded. They ran onboard and strapped themselves in.

In less than a minute, the first transporter took off from the flightdeck and flew down toward the occupied station's docking bays, the remaining seventeen transport vessels that formed the task force, following close behind.

The station was disk shaped, the top covered in communication spears, radar dishes and protruding, spaced out an equal distance from each other, four triangular tower like structures contained the living quarters of the installation, while the bottom was dominated by a central signal spire hanging from the disk, like some sort of giant stalactite.

The seventeen transporters landed in the large main hangar of the station, and before the imperials even got the ramps lowered, hundreds of white uniformed rebels, who had dug in around the docking bay, opened fire at them from every perceivable angle.

The imperial troops immediately took cover behind the transporters to avoid being quick casualty.

To insure not every soldier would get killed, the transport pilots trained their front mounted laser cannons and opened fire, blowing away anything the rebels could have used for cover, clearing a path for the liberation to begin.

The imperial forces stormed the hanger and as they secured the place, Briza walked down the ramp "TROOPERS! DESTROY THE BAY DOORS!" As she shouted the order, all troopers immediately found detonators and placed them on the durosteel blast doors that blocked their advance.

As soon as the blast door blow open, they were met by another squadron of rebels, firing at them from the interior of the station. About a dozen imperial troopers was shoot down before they had even had a chance to take cover.

Briza ignited her red lightsabers to deflect the incoming blaster fire, all the while shouting. "BRING THE HEAVY DROIDS!" As she deflected the laser bolts, her troops was returning fire in retaliation.

In the heat of the battle, Briza felt a disturbance in the force, like an evil beast of madness had just awakened. She felt it so intently, that she paused her attack in the midst of the fighting. A blaster bolt narrowly missed her head, but thanks to her razor sharp reflexes, she quickly deflecting it away.

"My lord! Are you alright?!" The Sergeant asked in dismay, as he fired a spray of shots providing cover fire for his lord to get to safety.

Briza tried to regain her composure, but that was easier said than done. Her whole body was shaking, something terrifying had just happened and when she spoke, it was not in the confident tone she was known for. "Be on your guard Sergeant! This may very well be a trap."

"Understood my lord." The same Sergeant humbly replied, as the platoon returned fire on the rebel troops.

All of a sudden one of the troop transporters exploded. Briza turned her head in time to see several green laser beams inches from the other transporters. "GET DOWN!" She shouted just as everything from transporters to heavy battle droids were blown to pieces, splinters and melted durasteel flow through the air narrowly missing their heads, as the hanger was turned into a blazing inferno. Briza saw to her dread, that they were being fired upon, by their own mighty battleship. It was bombarding them with it's heavy turbo laser batteries. The two companies that had formed the 288 troop strong boarding party, was reduced to a mere few dozen men, frighted and surrounded.

"EVERYONE! FORWARD!" Briza shouted the order and ran towards the rebels, the remainder of the boarding party following, as the rebel gunners constituted the lesser threat compared to the Hellfire's laser cannons.

They fought their way deeper into the station, only to find the rebels waiting for them in a much larger number than anticipated. Briza was pressed to her utmost deflecting blaster shoots left, right and center. As her troops died around her, she sensed an imitate danger and force jumped backwards, somersault away just quick enough to avoid the mined floor killing her too, as it did her troops a split second later, engulfing them in a huge deafening fireball, equipment and floor pieces flying in all directions.

As the smoke cleared, the sith lord commander was nowhere to be seen. The rebel commander took up his commlink and informed. "All tropes! We have a dangerous sith in hiding. Kill or capture!" All the while his own platoon searched the imperial troops, now lying dead in heaps across the corridor.

Using the force to hide her present, Briza slowly and carefully maneuvered around the rebels perimeter. Haven been here several times before, overseeing the station's construction, she knew the layout all too well. _"The main hanger is most likely overrun with rebels by now, so where else would there be something flyable?"_ She considered her options. She concluded that the lower hangers must be her best chance of finding a ship good enough to escape in.

The next half an hour, was the most difficult stealth missions she had ever tried. Battalions of rebels were looking all over for her. It took skill and a new and inventive way to get around unseen. To her luck, the rebel didn't seem to be too familiar with the station, which aside from the force was her greatest advantage.

After a slow and lengthy trip, with lots of detours, Briza finally reached the lower hangers. To her delight, a QY46 rhino light freighter, had just recently docked. The ship was a yellowy orange color, with a huge container like mitter section as the main cargo area. It had three large engines in the back and the cockpit was mounted on the front-top of the ship, resembling a horn on a huge beast. _"Perfect! Just what I need, an old smuggler ship. It should be fast enough to get me out of here in one peach."_ She thought optimistically to herself.

However, two problems stood in her way; one was a traffic control station that overlooked the hanger, the second was that the ship seemed to be heavily guarded.

She went to the traffic control stations. There was one operator at the console, besides the two soldiers guarding him. Silent as a nexu, she snuck up behind the guards and in a flick of motion, their heads detached from their bodies by a single lightsaber cut. The hisse from the lightsabers made the operator turn to see a red light flying right at him. A second later he dropped dead to the ground.

Briza turned off her lightsaber and began to look at the console controlling the gates. After a minute of fiddling with the control console, everything holding the ship in place, like the ray-shield was turned off. As she looked at the monitor overlooking the hanger to determine the best way of sneaking past the guards, she noticed the freighter pilot talking to the guards that she had previously seen guarding the area. The guards looked very familiar, almost like. _"Imperial mercenaries? What are they doing here?"_ Briza wondered, a bit puzzled. _"They wouldn't help a band of rebels without some serious reason... or a hefty fee."_ She would have taken one with her for questioning, if there hadn't been so many.

down in the hanger, the frighted pilot was still trying to convince the bounty hunters to let him leave again. "Take all my cargo, just please let me leave."

A pink twi'lek of averaged height looked at him with narrowed eyes before replying in a hostile tone. "Shut your mouth, or 'Teeth' here, is going give you a beating! You can leave when _I_ say so, GOT IT!" Pointing emphatically at his own face.

Before the smuggler pilot had a chance to reply, the ship's engines roared to life. "Someone is stealing my SHIP!" The Ship's owner exclaimed in shock.

"BLAST! THAT! SHIP!" Teeth shouted in a threatening tone. He only barely notice a red Zabrak seated in the cockpit of the ship, stretching out her hand toward him. The next second one of his stun grenade had been activated on his belt. "Oh Shit!" ...Was the only thing he had time to utter, before the stun grenade detonated and everyone around him collapsed on the floor with him at the bottom- When the stun effect wore off, the red zabrak and the stolen smuggler ship was long gone.

Briza quickly figured out how to fly the type QY 46 fairly well. She was lucky that she had tried her friend Jent's light freighter out back on Korriban, as this craft had some similar aspects to it.

She did expected trouble from enemy fighters as soon as she left the station, but it was _imperial_ fighters launched from the Hellfire's decks that attacked, not rebels.

She made a number of twists and turns to get the pursuing fighters of her back. The freighter was rapidly hit by laser shoots and as the rare deflector shield was just about to give up, she quickly hammered in the the coordinates to Dromund kaas on the navy computer and yanked the hyperdrive lever. The view was lit up with stars, as she blazed through hyperspace. She collapsed in the pilot seat out of pure exhaustion. Finally she could relax. What began as just a normal day of oversight, had turned into a fight for survival.

Now that Briza had time to cool down, she began to wonder. _"What had just happened? Why did our flag ship fire on me and my troops?"_ She remembered the sudden pain she had felt from the force, just before they were betrayed by their flagship. _"Someone very powerful has killed Darth Veness and taken control of the Hellfire."_

Briza didn't really find any sorrow in the death of her master, or any of the troopers that had just died. She hadn't really known any of them, but one thing that _did_ dawn on her was the question of who had done all this. _"Who could be this bold and powerful? To infiltrate both our station and our dreadnought at the same time, without being detected by either my master nor myself. I must inform the dark council of these events as quickly as possible!"_ She thought to herself as she let fatigue overcome her and dragged her to a world of dreams.

* * *

TYTHON: NEW JEDI TEMPLE

In the Training chambers, two jedi duelist were honing their skills by sparring one and other.

Mathorn parried a quick downward swing while asking a seemingly causal question "Do you know how long to the festival begins?"

While coming in with a renewed attack, this time from below, Jonathan took a quick glance at the chrono on his wrist. "There is three hours before it begins. We got plenty of time."

"I'm just so excited! I really want to be there before it begins." Mathorn exclaimed eagerly, as he guarded the incoming attack and followed it up with a swift counterattack, yapping at the human's head.

In the past the jedi and the Twi'lek tribe, had been at odds with each other, because of illegal settling, but over the recent months tensions between the two parties had settled down. On this day, a festival in honor of something or other was about to be held in the twi'lek village. Everyone was encouraged to watch, but only native Twi'lek species were allowed to participate.

The quick reversal came as a bit of a surprise to Jonathan, who quickly went into a defensive posture, while asking, a bit put off. "Why are you so anxious to go this festival? I'm sure it will be a spectacular performance, but why are you so enthusiastic about it? It's not like we can join ourselves."

"No, but... that's where you are wrong. We can't... Twi'lek jedi's _can_. I can't wait to see Mile'giko in that dress with the open mitter section of theirs." Mathorn grinned wickedly, as he tried dancing around his friends defenses.

Jonathan just shook his head and sighed, as he blocked a slash at his right arm. "I wonder if you will ever act like a real jedi is suppose to."

Mathorn had been summoned a record breaking amount of times to stand before the jedi council for bad or inappropriate behavior. "Yes I know, the council told me as much. Don't remind me, I already have a sister who never forgets to mention it either." Mathorn replied a bit irritated. "But that's the point! This is not wrong, we will just be ordinary jedi bystanders." he smirked with glee and finished with a downward slash while uttering. "What can I say, I like _goils_."

In all the years Jonathan had known Mathorn, he had never been able to shy away from pretty girls of any species. In addition he had a strong tendency toward thrill seeking with little fear of death. This combination had lead to many a problem and was a recurring topic on the jedi council, with banishment as the most likely outcome.

Despite all these problems, Mathorn was an outstanding fighter with an unprecedented endurance, few could match. On multiple occasions, he had defeated sith lords far above what most true jedi knights would have had been able to handle, thereby saving many people in the process. He had proven that he shared _some_ of the potential that his sister contained, proving he indeed was of the same bloodline as her.

"Let's go and get Urr'Tar." Mathorn decided and wandered out of the training room.

"Sure, let's see what he is doing." Jonathan replied with a nod and followed suit.

In the meditation room the unmistakable green Mirialan sat cross legged on a large flat meditation pillow. "I sense... friends have invaded my totalitarian regime."

"Thats right." Mathorn laughed as he stated his intentions. "Whatever you just said. We are kidnapping you on our journey to the festival."

"A little kidnapping here and there, only helps the world rotated." Urr'Tar muttered as he rose to join them on their grand journey.

"There's still hours till it actually begins." Jonathan felt the need to point out.

"Time, matters not." Urr'Tar commented out of nowhere.

Jonathan chuckled a second, then replied politely. "Sorry my friend, but in this case I have to disagree."

"You speak as if you were there now. We will travel for days without end, may the force safeguard us on our adventure." Urr'Tar replied in an important sounding voice, while staring up at the roof above, as if there was something to look at.

"Or... We could take a speeder and be their _now_." Mathorn suggested with a smirk.

"The world will be forever altered." Urr'Tar mumbled as he was pushed out of the room.

"Indeed, it will…" Jonathan added dryly.

Urr'Tar's personality hadn't changed much over the years. Meditation had helped on his energy levels which had made him less drowsy than before and awake more hours of the day. He had shown great skill for mind altering abilities. The Jedi were divided on his unique view of the force as a whole. Some jedi, 'like his master' had shown great interested in his view of the universe, whereas others were inclined to think he was just plain weird, but with a decent amount of force potentiality.

* * *

Outside in the sunshine, Tikala was walking her friend Mile'giko, alongside the other jedi Twi'lek's, to the village to get ready for the festival. Mile'giko was, like her fellow Twi'lek's, wearing a traditional golden dress with silver circle patterns. The dress didn't do much to hide her figure, rather the opposite, hogging her curves and emphasizing her distinctly feminine body. Mile'giko was slightly above average height with smooth dark purple skin. While Tikala on the other hand was klad in the traditional jedi robes, which revealed little to none of her slim shape. She was shorter, with now fully grown horns and beige colored skin.

"I must admit, I am a bit nervous." Mile'giko admitted to her Zabrak friend in a low and careful voice.

"I'm sure it will be alright." Tikala reassured her Twi'lek friend with a soft smile.

Mile'giko knew the tradition of her people well enough, but it still made her a bit uneasy. "I have never danced in public before."

"I know you can do it. You are very graceful Mile'giko, no one will look down on you." Tikala assured her sincerely.

"Not as graceful as you, Tikala." Mile'giko replied as a compliment, in pure honesty. "I wish we could do the ritual together" she muttered wishfully.

Tikala chuckled whole heartedly, but her expression changed quickly, when she suddenly sensed someone was watching them from behind, someone very familiar.

Mile'giko noticed her friend's split second distraction. "Did you feel something Tikala?"

"It's just my brother. He is looking at us, I wonder why." Tikala informed cooly. Now that she streasted her senses, she noticed the two other with him. "I believe Jonathan and Urr'Tar is with him too."

"I.. _see_." Mile'giko didn't know what to think or feel, so she just ignored the onlookers. _"I might as well just get used to it."_ She calmly thought to herself.

* * *

Near the border of the grounds of the jedi temple, Mathorn and his "gang" was hiding in the vegetation, but only the _self proclaimed_ leader was watching the Jedi Twi'leks on their way, with a pair of electrobinoculars, from afar.

"Are we really _spying_ on our _own_ people." Jonathan asked a bit dumbfounded.

"I call it _looking out for them_." Mathorn replied with a grin.

"Your sister knows that you look." Urr'Tar uttered as if from a trance.

"Really? Well in that case, we just have to be more stealthy." Mathorn was still not convinced of the utter pointlessness of his plan.

Jonathan tried, for the eighth time today, to be the voice of reason. "If your sister already knows where we are. We might as well come forth and wish them good luck."

"This is much more adventurous and isn't scouting ahead what they train us to do." Mathorn pointed out for the fun of it.

"We have already been detected. I vote that we stop this nonsense and do something productive." Jonathan retorted and raised his hand to empathizes his point.

"Come on! We are suppose to be brothers in this." Mathorn argued in dismay.

"Mathorn... this serves no point. We _are_ jedi, not mindless stalkers." Jonathan pointed out.

"The seer has spoken, wisdom have been revealed." Urr'Tar uttered in earnest and raised his hand too.

Mathorn reluctantly gave in, with a sigh. "Fine... our position have been compromised anyhow."

But before any of them got out of their hiding place, his little sister appeared above, looking down at them with a puzzled expression on her face. "Hi there, why are you watching us leave?" Tikala asked to get clarification.

" _We_ have no reason, only _he_ seek to be entertained." Urr'Tar explained sincerely while pointing at the lawless brother.

Mathorn looked up at his sister, looking down on the three. "Ahh... sis, weren't you just with the twi's just a moment ago?"

"I only followed them to the border. I'm not allowed to enter before the festival begins." Tikala informed in a calm and chipper mood.

"I apologize Miss Xastra, I hope you and your friends, didn't find it too uncomfortable." Jonathan apologized in advance.

Tikala gave him a curious look in return. "No need to apologize. I just don't understand why you are spying on us? When you could just as well have joined us?"

Jonathan nodded repeatedly in recognition. "In truth, I don't understand it either. It was Mathorn's idea afterall."

When all eyes went to him, Mathorn yielded. "What can I say, I just wanted to see if I could look out for my sister, without anyone knowing." He tried to explain. "But I know what you're thinking, _did we learn anything from this?_ We did! We learned that Urr'Tar knows, that you know, that we were looking at you!"

"Did you? When did you know that I had sensed all of you?" Tikala asked curiously. This was the first time she had encountered someone who could sense, what she sensed from that distance. Not even her master could accomplish such a feat.

"I sensed when the grand sister spoke to her friend about us." Urr'Tar explained very directly, but still in his usually drowsy tone.

"That's really impressive Urr'Tar... and you don't have to call me grand or anything. My name would do just fine." Tikala said admiringly. "Do your master know of this?"

"She knows this... and many other things. Including my plants." Urr'Tar revealed without saying much.

Tikala was eager to learn more, but also knew they should be heading back to change into their ceremonial robes before the festival began. "Let's get back to the temple."

Everyone nodded and followed her back. While Tikala and Urr'Tar continued their convention, Mathorn made sure he and the Aldorainan fell back a few steps and whispered relieved. "'puif' That was a close one. Good thing we managed to distract her."

"You are too disrespectful to the Twi'lek's and to your own sister. You know that the council does not like it when you behave this way!" Jonathan whispered in a very serious tone, as his friend had on several occasions been scolded and warned. "If you continue on this path, you will be forced to leave the order, forever."

"I Know… I know. At least, they don't know about this one." Mathorn replied in a relaxed and cool tone of voice.

"One day his head will be for all to see." Urr'Tar uttered in a dream like state, as they reached the temple.


	8. Episode 1: An unknown threat: Part 2

DROMUND KAAS: IMPERIAL INTELLIGENCE HEADQUARTERS

The control center was a large grey room with console upon console lining the walls. In the middle of the room, the floor was lowered and likewise packed with consoles giving way to even more consoles. At one end of the room a gigantic red screen showed various shifting analytic data, whereas a raised area overlooking the rest of the room dominated the other end.

At one of the console sections, at the far side of the room, the furthest away from the command area, a human male in his thirties was complaining intensely to an orange skinned Zabrak male first in his twenties.

"I tell you Dax. We were so much better off when we slaughtered the republic scum, instead of this outrageous _peace_. Better pay. Better status. I tell you Dax, it was better times." The human Minder exclaimed to the Zabrak at the neighboring console. Linn Creed was a bold man of average height and weight, his only noticeable features being a black goatee and piercing icy blue eyes.

In front of his table, with cup of caf in hand, Terrow, now fully grown and with a dozen horns protruding from his short red hair, was looking through fund transactions, that could be linked to a possible terror cell. Clad in the typical imperial uniform assigned to a Fixer, Terrow, now only known as Daxten Halan, had successfully assumed his cover identity and hid from his unknowing sith persecutors in plain sight. The green eyed Zabrak looked at his monitor as he muttered a reply. "So you miss the good old times, Linn? the good old _over-time_ we had to endure? All the sleepless nights and all the harassment for _being too slow_ at our impossibly demanding work?"

"Come on Dax. At least people got butchered! Can't you remember the excitement of seeing which star-systems were first to be burned to ashes. Seeing the frightened little faces on the news just before their inevitable end." Linn pointed out with enthusiasm.

Terrow raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure you haven't had enough caf already? Your sounding sadistic again."

"Ahh... You're no fun today." Linn resigned a bit disappointed.

Terrow just shrugged and turned his full attention to the work at hand.

Just then a priority distress call came in on the speakers. "This is Lord Briza of the Imperial army, do anyone copy?!

Terrow nearly fell out of his chair when he heard the unmistakably familiar voice, of his older sister. Even over a quicky scrambled emergency call, she still sounded exactly like he remembers her from all those years ago.

One of the Imperial intelligence forces quickly responded to the distress call. "We read you loud and clear milord."

"I have vital information for the dark council! I demand a docking hangar, immediately!" Briza ordered.

"Clearance granted milord. I'm sending you the coordinates now." The officer informed in post haste. "We have forwarded your request to address the dark council, urgently."

"Good, prepare for my immediate arrival." Briza replied satisfied, cut the connection and began the landing procedure.

"Finally something is happening!" Linn exclaimed in his chair. "Let's hope those republic filths are behind it. They could use a good eradication!"

One of their superior officers, a black haired man in his late forties with graying temples and a mustache, Watcher Nilliun looked sharply at the upbeat agent. "Minder Creed, we all admire your eagerness. But! Do I _have_ to remind you, to keep your thoughts to yourself, _again_?!"

"No sir, I'll remember." Linn acknowledged with a lowered head. Afterwards, when his superior was out of ear range, he started up again, this time grumbling curses to himself.

A few minutes later Briza entered the intelligences headquarter. She was battered and wounded, but she still held herself high, her determination marking her as a sith lord.

Richard Nilliun bowed as she entered. "Watcher twelve at your disposal, my lord."

Briza didn't care for his courtesy, she just wanted to get to the business at hand. "Show me to a comm terminal at once!" She demanded firmly.

"Right this way!" Richard quickly replied and moved with all haste.

As she was led to an available comm station, Briza took a quick glance around the enormous office complexe. She nearly stopped in her track when she noticed Terrow sitting at one of the comm stations. He gave her a quick look as confirmation that it was him, before returning to his work like nothing was amiss. _"He is rather good at concealing his presence, even I couldn't sense him."_ She thought to herself with a sense of pride, as she was shown to a private chamber.

"This comm chambers is prepared with a secure connection directly to dark council" Richard quickly explained to the impatient sith lord.

"Very well, I will call on you, when I have further need for you" Briza stated directly.

Richard made a quick bow "As you wish" The door sliding closed behind him, he quickly returned to his desk, continuing his work where he had left it.

Alone in the room, the holo connection flashed a few times, before showing the whole dark council in front of her. Even as holographic figures, Briza could feel the intense dark powers around her. She knew even at this distance, that they could kill her if they so desired. She staggered a little as she pondered how best to address them. She decided to bow as a sign of deep respect.

"You may speak child" Darth Marr ordered, as his and every council members eyes came upon the young sith lord.

Briza quickly got her wits about her and began recounting the events that had transpired, of how she had survived, and of what had happened at the station.

Darth Mortis studied the Zabrak in the hologram "Rebel mercenaries you say, and what... you say you felt your master die? As your own ship turned on you, did you sense anything else?"

"No I didn't. It was like a mist... no... like a shadow had befallen our dreadnought." Briza politely reported.

Marr who had spoken earlier, turned a bit in his seat as he pondered the possibilities. "It is likely that your master, Darth Veness, have been murdered."

Briza swallowed as she listened to the debate unfolding.

"But who? The republic isn't likely to be behind this attack" Darth Hadra commented a bit puzzled.

Mortis pondered the question "This threat, is hiding in the shadows and have likely done so for some time"

"If what you say is true, then I have to congratulate you on a brilliant escape to bring us this news." Darth Vowrawn congratulated with a cheerful attitude.

"Thank you my lord" Briza bowed slightly, in appreciation.

"Imperial intelligence have already confirmed her story. The dreadnought named Hellfire, is now under rebel control." Darth Jadus reaffirmed. "A strike team should be assembled to deal with the rebel plague as soon as possible"

There was general a murmur of agreement, followed by some disagreement on who should handle the matter.

"But what is to be done with this _excellent_ child?" Darth Vowrawn casually _inquiring_ about Briza's future.

"She will serve me. Her master Darth Veness was already part of my domain and Veness sister happens to be my apprentice" Mortis staked his claim.

"I concur, but... that also means it will be your responsibly to make sure law and order is kept in that sector. You will likely need four qualified sith lords and a brigade to back them" Marr demanded in turn.

Mortis acknowledged with a nod "If this is to be my burden, so be it. I will assemble a strike force and deal with this _rebel_ uprising." He spoke with the distaste clearly audible in his voice.

"It seems we are all in agreement." Darth Marr concluded the meeting.

"Child, come to my office, there we will discuss your assignment in detail" Mortis commanded in a subtle, but firm voice.

Briza bowed as she accepted the order "Yes my lord, I will go to you at once"

"Good, I'll be expecting you" Mortis replied and ended the transmission.

Briza wasted no time, as she exited the imperial intelligence compound, she ordered a taxi to take her to her new superior's stronghold.

* * *

TYTHON: KALIKORI VILLAGE

A colorful presentation, were unfolding before their eyes, as rhythmic music played and a dozen female and male dancers entered the stage, each dressed more colorful than the next.

Most of the audience felt entranced by the music, some even had trouble keeping themselves from dancing to the tunes. Mathorn stood as a teenager, staring intensely at the Twi'lek dancers as he imagined being a king in his own palace with all these _wonderful_ dancer, dancing around him on his behalf.

It was impossible for the remainder of the jedi group to ignore the vibe that was emanating from him. Tikala and Jonathan shared a concerned look as their rude companion kept leining further and further over rails.

"I sense... he wants to mate" Urr'Tar mumbled the obvious.

Reniuz who noticed the impolite jedi, walked over with long determined strides. The entranced jedi didn't notice the danger right behind him and only awoke from his daydream when a firm hand was placed on his shoulder.

Mathorn was startled. His face and body language told the story of someone who had just been caught red handed, doing something he without a doubt know to be wrong, _very_ wrong "Aaaa... nice show... don't you think?"

Reniuz nodded at his attempt to change the subject. "Yes indeed. They _are_ very talented" after these words, her face turned hard as rock and her expression turned to pure disapproval. " _But..._ you are a _jedi_. This behavior of yours _isn't_ tolerated. You may look and admire their craft, but you are not to _stare_ at it, like an ill mannered gang member! Is this understood!?"

Her words rang in the air for a time until, Mathorn regained his wits and decided an apology would be his best line of defence. "Sorry master, i'll keep it under control... promiss"

"Good. You need to improve your behaviour or you will never rise to the rank of knight." Reniuz firmly warned, reminding Mathorn that he had been in trouble multy times for his bad behavior. Three times he had nearly been banished.

Tikala relaxed a little, as she watched her childhood friend perform marvelously to the cheering of the crowd.

Both Jonathan and Reniuz was very entertained by the festivities while Urr'Tar on the other hand felt very indifferent, since huge gatherings of loud people was not his cup of caf. Mathorn who just moments ago couldn't contain himself, had become too moody to really enjoy it as much as he had wanted to.

As the show came to a closure, people began gathering in tents were food and drinks were being served. Tikala had been invited over to a private tent were Mile'giko, and some of the remaining Twi'lek performers went to cool off. This annoyed Mathorn, but he said nothing. Instead the trio just found an empty table and sat down to eat.

While they ate, Mathorn noticed people was gathering around the bar. wondering why, he took a closer look and noticed to his delight the reason. "Okay Jonathan, be my wingman." He demanded, his eagerness audible in his voice. He dragged his friend along, over to the crowd, where he had just spotted two of the previously dancing Twi'leks being praised by all kinds of people.

Jonathan just had time to mutter. "Why me." Before he was face to face with the two Twi'lek ladies who were chatting.

"Hello darlings, nice show" Mathorn began, like he had seen on the holonet, and continued with the speech he _thought_ would sound impressive. "Mind being accompanied by two of the coolest jedi's in the _galaxy~_ "

The two dancers 'one red, one yellow' looked at the Zabrak with an odd expression. "You don't really strike me as a jedi." Replied the yellow Twi'lek in an indifferent and testing tone.

Mathorn was confused as to why the line hadn't worked? "I got the robe, and the lightsaber... Am I missing something here?" He showed them proudly, yet confused.

" _Sure you do_." The yellow Twi'lek mumbled in a tired voice and turned her head to look at the other jedi, who was accompanying the childish Zabrak. "But _who_ are _you_?" She asked suddenly very interested.

"I'm... Jonathan Baliss... and this is my friend-." Jonathan politely introduced himself, while trying to keep his distance, without being rude.

"You have _such_ a pretty face. You must have traveled _all_ over the galaxy, saving people from that _evil_ empire." The red Twi'lek spoke in soft and charming tone of voice.

Mathorn was stunned, he couldn't speak out of share disappointment and crushed expectations. He was totally demoralised and suddenly felt very empty inside.

"If you want _jedi_... we could show you our dance moves, only for _you_ of course _._ " The yellow Twi'lek invited with a soft smile on her lips.

Jonathan was both perplexed and a little scared. He wasn't really used to _this_ kind of _confrontation_. "Sorry, I don't think it would be right of me to accept your invitation." He politely declined before he got tangled up in something he couldn't handle.

But the Twi'lek's weren't that easily deterred. "Come _on_ , it's going to be fun, we _promise_." Prompted the red Twi'lek in the hope he would give in.

In the meantime Urr'Tar had finished his meal, walked up behind Mathorn and muttered comforting. "The black flower is cool enough for me."

"I can't take it! Why does he get the girls?" Mathorn muttered in a low voice, turning to Urr'Tar he asked. "So what do you think, do you find him attracting?"

"The color of his flower is azure and the plant is juicy" Urr'Tar mumbled cryptically, whereafter he wandered over to Jonathan who was in fear of being kidnapped. Urr'Tar just gazed at the flirting dancers and stated. "He is not alive." He waved his right hand as he spoke.

Suddenly the Twi'lek dancers left Jonathan to himself and wandered off completely oblivious of what they had been doing just a moment ago.

"Thank you Urr'Tar, you are a life saviour. I don't know what they would done to me if you hadn't stepped in." Jonathan thanked with a wide smiled.

"Instead of sending them off... couldn't you just have made them like me?" Mathorn asked, moody as ever.

Urr'Tar seemed distant for a moment, before he uttered. "We are called for."

Not a moment later, Tikala came running towards them with Mile'giko following right behind. "Mathorn and Jonathan, we are being called to an emergency meeting with the council. Something bad have just happened!" Tikala stated, urging them to move.

Mathorn nodded quickly and turned to the Mirialan of the gang. "Urr'Tar, you'll save Mile'giko while we save the galaxy. Let's get moving!" he dictated.

Jonathan too nodded and the three of them ran over to one of the parked air speeders and took of.

Mile'giko just looked after them as they disappear on the horizon. "Best of luck and may the force be with you all" she uttered.

"Hi Lady pretty. I'm suppose to save you, but I don't know how?" Urr'Tar said, clearly confused.

"I'm already saved Urr'Tar. You can just make your way home." Mile'giko softly suggested with her head tilted a little.

"You speak the truth. You are not going to be eradicated." Urr'Tar replied and smiled back at her.

Mile'giko uttered a sigh, but her smile remained.


	9. Episode 1: An unknown threat: Part 3

JEDI TEMPLE: HIGH COUNCIL CHAMBER.

Inside the magnificent circular chamber. Tikala, Mathorn and Jonathan arrived to see two jedi masters with sad expressions clearly visible on their faces.

Bela Kiwiiks smiled as they entered. "Thank you all for returning so quickly…" The Togruta's expression changed back to her previous sad state, but this time with a hint of gravity in her voice. "We have just been informed, that master Buz have been kidnapped!"

The news shocked Tikala to the core of her being. "How? Is he alright?!" She asked, dearly hoping her Master wasn't held inside an imperial cell, badly wounded.

With a calm voice, Syo Bakarn began to explain the details. "We received the information from the SIS. It appeared he have been captured by a group of mercenaries called the Tenkan bounty hunter Syndicate."

"Do we know where they are now?" Jonathan asked, as more information was needed.

"We know their last trajectory. They were headed towards the Dathomirian systems." Bela Kiwiiks informed in a serious tone.

"So they work for the empire, go figure." Mathorn uttered, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Not necessarily. According to what we could find in our data cores, they are an independent group based on the planet of Ord Canfre." Syo Bakarn elaborated the finer points.

"Ord Canfre... that's in the outer rim, a neutral system if recall correctly." Jonathan remembered, thinking back on his upbringing, studying galactic history and star maps.

"Oh boy... That's a long journey." Mathorn muttered indifferent.

"When will we begin our journey?" Tikala asked for further details.

"Within the hour. A starship is being prepared with all necessary equipment for your travel." Syo Bakarn told them straight out as a matter of fact.

"A Jedi starship?!" Mathorn asked hoping something worthwhile. If they were going to travel that far, they might as well do it in style.

"A U5 golden-ray yacht, equipped with concealed weapons, long range communications and high tech scanners. You will be flying as simple travelers." Syo Bakarn explained to the unsuitably enthusiastic zabrak.

"A luxury starship eh... Good enough, I guess." Mathorn muttered satisfied to himself.

"Your cover story is as follows: You are a family and their human friend, who are on the run from republic law enforcement, on account of various crimes including theft and resisting arrest." Bela Kiwiiks elaborated the plan. "This will convince the mercenaries that you're no threat to them and that you're no friend of the republic... Are there any questions?"

"As criminales?" Tikala replied a bit perplexed.

"Don't worry sis... I got _this_ part covered." Mathorn reply with a smile that quickly turned into a grin.

"We have no doubt that you have. But we advise you to keep it to a minimum." Syo Bakarn firmly stated.

"Why isn't Urr'Tar coming with us? He could be of great help." Jonathan asked, as the three of them had performed exceptionally well together in the past.

"Master Odoum wished him to stay for the time being. She believes, he could unlock the mysteries of Tythons temples by seeing from the perception of the ancient jedis who came before." Bela Kiwiiks told the three puzzled jedi's. In her own mind however, she were puzzled by this as well.

"Are there any other questions?" Bela Kiwiiks asked again.

"I still believe the empire is behind it." Mathorn muttered bitterly.

"No one can say for sure. We should keep an opened mind on the matter. This kidnapping is very unusual... Master Buz would likely have sensed the threat coming his way, but was captured regardless." Syo Bakarn pointed out and turned his attention to the youngest in the group. "Tikala Xastra... You will be leading this mission. It will be your responsibility to save your master and make sure everyone gets home in one piece. Mathorn will pilot the ship and Jonathan will handle navigations."

"We will do our best to get Master Buz home, safe and unscathed." Tikala promised on behalf of herself and the others.

Bela Kiwiiks smiled softly as she uttered the remaining words. "To you are all I say, go now, go with all haste. Once you reach the Ord Canfre system, SIS will contact you on arrival. They may have uncovered more intel by then... May the force be with you."

Tikala and Jonathan bowed slightly, with the masters mimicking the gesture in turn. Mathorn failed to do so at first, before he too, politely bowed. Then the three of them turned and headed to the hanger in a quickened pace.

The Golden-ray looked old, yet polished to point where you could use its durasteel hull as a mirror. It might even have been an expensive craft at one point in time. The vessel had a flat pentagram like shape, with a spear like cockpit in the front and three horizontal engines to the rear.

It didn't take long before they were onboard and ready to lift off. The yacht featured eight rooms beside the cockpit, four small private chambers, a large living room, a small kitchen, a standard refresher and a tiny cargo hold. They chose a chamber each and unpacked what little equipment they had in their tool belts.

Mathorn entered the cockpit and initiated a quick flight check to see if everything was in order, before he engages the engines and took to the sky. Tikala meditated in her private room. Jonathan sat himself in a chair in the living room, not having much to do navigation wise at this particular moment. Instead he used the respite to go over the recent events in his mind, smiling a little to himself. He was proud to have been chosen of all the brilliant jedi, for this mission. Then he thought about the siblings. He felt certain that no matter what, they would stand by him.

Some months ago, he learned to his _horror_ , that his own family, old and proud as they, had allied themselves with house Thul in support of the sith empire on multiple occasions. He had _even_ received an invitation to join the empire and become a sith lord in his family's name and honor... to which he had declined without a second thought.

When he had told Mathorn and Urr'Tar the news, they hadn't cared, he was their aristocratic friend, whatever his family were doing, didn't matter the slightest to them. Nor had it mattered to Tikala and the rest of the Jedi either, as opposed to his… biological family who had shunned him for not accepting the empires offer.

* * *

DROMUND KAAS: MORTIS' CASTLE

Briza entered the magnificent compound, that was the focal point of Darth Mortis' power. At the center of the compound, surrounded by thick jungle on all sides, the tall spike like towers of the gloomy black fortress reached toward the eternally clouded gray skies of Dromund Kaas.

Upon opening the airspeeders door, Briza was meet by the synthetic voice of a protocol droid. "Welcome Lord Briza. Darth Mortis is expecting you. Please follow me." The droid politely invited and showed her the way.

Reaching the chamber of the dark lord, Briza's blood froze. She could feel an enormous amount of dark power emanating from within the chamber. When entering the inner chamber, she noticed another sith lord was present and standing next to Darth Mortis in the dimly lit room.

The tall man standing next to Darth Mortis, in the middle of the lavishly decorated yet ominous room, was human like Mortis. Besides the apparent age difference, which was considerable if you didn't take Mortis' dark side corrupted features into account, the middle aged man was wearing a light battle armor shrouded in a black cloak in opposition to Mortis' traditional sorcerer attire. His narrow face was a slightly pale nuance, while his immaculately trimmed mustache and chin-beard was jet black just as his long slicked back hair.

It was Darth Mortis who was the first to speak. "Thank you for coming so quickly. As you can see, you aren't the only one I have summed. This is Darth Imperious, one of my most trusted subordinates." He paused as he looked Briza directly in the eyes and continued. "Because of your master's demise, you will be placed under the influence of Darth Imperious, as he held the closest ties to Darth Veness. From here on, he will be your new master."

Briza bowed before the slender dark figure. "It will be an honor to serve you, My Lord."

"Rise Lord Briza, I welcome you into my innercircle." Imperious invited, in a tone that made every word uttered seem as if it had been carefully considered beforehand to emphasise some deeper meaning.

Mortis looked pleased when he spoke again. "Under the leadership of Lord Imperious, you will be instrumental in hunting down this new foe of ours."

"I will do what you ask of me." Briza accepted her labor.

"As we speak, I am assembling a task force to neutralize the rebel incursion. Since you already have first hand knowledge on the layout of the station, it seems only fitting, that you take on a leading role in the impending assault, as well as the retaking of the Hellfire." Imperious stating the order in an indirect and somewhat expectant tone.

"Have our intelligence network identified who was behind the rebel attack?" Briza asked politely. Wondering if any new information had been uncovered.

"Not as of yet. This is in part why a squad of Imperial agents will be assigned to the task force." Imperious elaborated in a calm voice.

"Lord Briza, as a reward for your sole survival and the retrieval of vital information. Darth Venness' penthouse and all the riches that comes with it, is yours." Mortis congratulated in an aristocratic fashion.

"Thank you for your kindness My Lord, I will not fail you." Briza promised and bowed deeply for emphases.

"Lord Imperious will see to it, that you succeed." Mortis assured while indirectly reiterating an order from an earlier conversation. He finished in a quieter voice. "I am tired now, you are both dismissed."

Imperious and Briza bowed before taking their leave. Finding an elevator, they both walked in. Briza pressed the button for the elevator to take them to the first floor.

As the elevator moved, Briza carefully asked her new superior. "If I may ask My Lord. When will the task force be ready?"

"The task force should be ready in eight standard hours." Imperious replied cooly and collected, his yellow tinted deep blue eyes staring straight ahead. "I suggest you go home and rest. I will call upon you, when you are needed."

"Of course My Lord." Briza humbly replied. Idle talk didn't seem to be in her best interest at the moment, she thought, but at least she could go home and take her _former_ Master's luxurious bed as her own.

* * *

MIDRIM: Near Nal Hutta, in hutt space.

A small outdated republic blockade runner was on its way through hyperspace. The vessel was painted red and orange, as was the captain's preferred colors. The paint job didn't hide the numerous creators and burn marks that covered the durasteel hull.

"No, I lost again!" A Zabrak exclaimed in frustration.

"Of course Teeth wins, Teeth never loses, Helgu should know that by now." A pink skinned twi'lek laughed triumphantly.

"Thats impossible! You got _pure sabacc_ twice in a row!" The tall wide shouldered Zabrak uttered in disbelief.

"Luck is Teeth's middle name." Teeth cheered as he made a little girly victory dance.

A Human male who was seated comfortably in a chair nearby, took a look over his shoulder at the pair of arguing thugs "Of course he got it twice... He cheated. It's the exact same cards he used in the second half of the stack, check and fold the stack next time."

It didn't take Helgu long to find the exact same cards in the deck and _suddenly_ the Orange Zabrak starting to change color to red in pure anger. "I'm going to rip out your _Teeth_ for this!"

"Let's... not get ahead of ourselves... the team still needs Teeth." Teeth tried to argue, but it didn't seem to have much effect on the much larger Zabrak who was mere inches away from choking him to death.

The human stood up and casually walked over, stepped in between the two. "Helgu don't break him apart just yet. We could need him if the jedi suddenly got loss." Qaton pointed out. "But if Zak here could stop talking about himself in third person for a few seconds, I'm sure that would do wonders." Punctuating the _suggestion_ with a menacing glare.

Helgu cooled considerably down before replying in a cold and sinister tone. "I think, I'll just take his sheer of the bounty."

That left Zak speechless as he pondered whether he was serious in his intention to steal Zak's sheer.

"It's hard to believe the payday that's just sitting and waiting for us, to come get it." Helgu said expectantly.

"Our client certainly is rich enough to make this kind of bounty, but if our guild leaders hadn't confirmed the wealth, I would have called it a fake deal." The human uttered his thoughts.

"Say Qaton, do you know who is hiring us?" Helgu asked curiously, if there was money to be made, he always wanted to know who it came from, so he knew where to go looking for more.

Qaton sighed and replied with uncertainty in his voice. "No... _but_ from the look of that gloomy looking crystal device we had with us, _he..._ is most likely a sith lord of some description, who doesn't want the wrath of the republic coming down on him."

"And instead, it's _us_ the republic is after." A slender Chiss commented, as he walked down the stairs to the crew area. "This is too risky. If _that_ device isn't working correctly, we could have an army of jedis on our tall at any given time. If it hadn't come from higher up, I wouldn't have authorized the mission."

Qaton nodded in return. "My exact words captain Okan. But looking forward, once we have delivered the jedi master, we're all rich!"

"I'm well aware mister Hanson. I'm also aware that a living jedi master is near impossible to keep unconscious indefinitely." Captain Okan replied with hint of warning.

"Why couldn't we just karbon freeze him, like we use to?" Teeth asked a bit confused.

"We were specifically instructed not to do so. They said that the dark device should keep him asleep." Okan told them, adding his doubts as he continued. "Truthfully I don't think it will work for long, nor do I want to place my faith in a weird black rock."

"I'll just knock him out, if he moves too much." Helgu replied with a sneering smile.

"That reminds me, it's your turn to keep watch." Okan said firmly, indirectly ordering the big bounty hunter up stairs.

Helgu didn't like to just sit around and keep watch over someone or something, but he did what he was told without complaints. "Yes captain." He muttered and waded up stairs.

Soon after a Zabrak female walked down the stairs. Her untidy mess of spiky dark red hair framing her once beautiful face. Black tattoos ran across her scarred orange skinned body in intricate patterns, from the roots of her horns, across her face, down her slender neck and disappearing underneath her tight gray tank top, which ended just above her toned belly. The tattoos reappear on her left shoulder, but where her right shoulder used to be, a prosthetic mechanical arm was attached in its stead. Dark green cargo pants only did a nominal job of hiding the mechanical exoskeleton that reinforced her leg structure all the way down, disappearing into large black tinted metal plated boots.

"Hey Zugi, sweetheart... -" Zak was about to continue his ridiculous blabbering, but was harshly interrupted.

"Call me that again! And I will wipe the floor with your brain!" Zugi threatened, her brown eyes slitted aggressively.

"Miss La'Mara, would you join us in game of Sabacc?" Qaton invited with a smile.

"From where do you know my last name?" Zugi asked, wondering if her personal data had been leaked.

"Read your freelancer contract, it's available for everyone with the technical know how to access it." Qaton grinned knowingly.

"What else do you know about me?" Zugi asked in a dull voice.

Qaton smiled and began speaking in a calm but alluding voice. "Not much, aside from your high salary you ask for contracts, which everyone here, I might add, would be jealous of. _And_ then there's your ruthless reputation as a murderer of course... are there any truth to it?"

" _Test_ me and you will soon find out." Zugi said challenging him with the warning clearly visible in her steel gaze. She then added in a calm voice. "I'm going to bed, you _boys_ keep quite."

Okan sighed. He particular didn't like this zabrak. The rumors of her and what she had done to innocent people made his stomach turn. "Qaton, Zak... take a chair, we'll play sabacc in my cabin."


	10. Episode 2: Deadly meeting: Part 1

**STAR WARS**

 **THE CRIMSON BLIGHT**

Episode 2: Deadly meeting

SPACE: Nearing the outer rim territories.

The golden ray continued its voyage through hyperspace, on board, the three jedi had just finished their morning jedi exercise. With Mathorn singing along to the music that was being played over the sound system, all while the kitchen machines were preparing their lunch.

"Why do I get the feeling you see this more as a vacation, than a rescue mission?" Jonathan wondered out loud, while the fresh smell of greeneries filled the air surrounding them.

"Loosen up a little. We don't have to train all the time." Mathorn commented chipperly and added in the same tone. "You can't be at peace, if you work yourself to the bone."

"True, but you can't get better if you don't practice and we don't-" Jonathan was speaking when the mission leader chimed in.

"If I may propose a compromise." Tikala broke in. When she had their attention she explained. "How about we after lunch, all take a small break and afterwards... I can teach you a technique I have recently learned. I believe it would benefit you both."

Jonathan and Mathorn looked at each other and nodded in unison. "That's a sound plan miss Xastra." Jonathan replied in agreement.

"You can call me by my first name, we have known eachother for years after all." Tikala suggested with a soft smile.

"I just thought it was more appropriate-" Jonathan said before being loudly interrupted.

"YES MASTER SISTER! Your will, is our joy... _or_... at least I hope so." Mathorn exclaimed for the fun of it.

The two more jedi-like jedi, only sighed as reply, before going to the ship's small kitchen, to get their selected menu for lunch.

A little later, in the living room, which had been converted into a training area, not large enough for proper fencing training, but big enough for basic practice. The two gentlemens both sat on soft meditation pillows, with Tikala standing over them as she began instructing. "What I'm going to introduce you to, is a force ability called 'force absorption'."

Jonathan raised an eyebrow. "Force absorption? Isn't that the ability to take in harmful outside energy and convert it to positive energy?" Both he and Mathorn had had some basic training in Tutaminis, but this was above their perceived ability.

"That's correct. With this force technique by your side, you will be able to absorb blaster bolts and other energy based attacks." Tikala explained. "Let me demonstrate." She then took a small pistol and handed it to Mathorn. "This stun blaster is only strong enough to make you feel numb for a short time. It will do for today's practice. Mathorn please shoot at me."

Mathorn looked at the gun and turned it in his hand as Tikala explained. When he was given the command he casually replied. "If you insist sis." He pointed and shot a small blue stun bolt right at his siblings chest, but Tikala just held up a hand and channeled it's electromagnetic energy through her hand and into herself.

"Cool sis!" Mathorn exclaimed. "See! My sister can beat _your_ sister." He bragged for the fun of it.

"Since my sisters are most likely being married to some high ranking imperials, instead of leaning how to defend themselves... there's _really_ no contest." Jonathan sighed heavily as he spoke and turned to the female sibling, keen on learning the new technic. "So where do we start? Miss... I mean Tikala."

Tikala was a bit perplexed for a short moment, so she closed her eyes for moment and let out her breath to calm herself before she began instructing. "This is the way I learned it. First you imagine the attacking energy and yourself as two separate energies. Then you accept the energy as if it were your own."

"I'm ready, just shoot me." Mathorn invited. He handed the small pistol back and prepared himself.

Mistaking imitated confidence for actual confidence Tikala stretched her arm and squeezed the trigger.

Mathorn stopped the bolt with both his hands, but instead of absorbing the energy, it just paralyzed his hands with a pain stinging effect. "Ouch!"

"Mathorn! I'm so sorry, are you okay?" Tikala quickly apologized sincerely. She chected the power settings again, but it was _still_ on its lowest setting.

"Can't move my arms, that's very bad." Mathorn stated his distress, mostly to himself.

Jonathan shook his head. "Mathorn... focus, remember when master Shan taught us to deflect force pushes?"

"Don't remind my... it's embracing." Mathorn hadn't forgotten that experience. Instead of deflecting or redirecting a simple force push, he enhanced it to such a degree, that he hurled himself backwards into the wall in back of the room with such pressure that he was hospitalized the remainder of the week from a dozen broken bones in his back.

Jonathan turned his attention to his instructor "...Tikala, I'm ready."

The aldoranian did manage to absorb the energy, but it wasn't perfect. He did feel some numbness in his hands, he didn't feel any pain from the stun bolt however.

They continuing practicing the rest of day. Mathorn managed to paralyze himself several times and only once did he actually perfect it, while Jonathan on the other hand got it right, about half the time.

* * *

DROMUND KAAS: BRIZA'S PENTHOUSE

Briza was awoken by a beeping noise from her comm unit. She answered it immediately and was greeted by the holographic representation of a sith lady, she recognised as being one of her allies. A woman she considered a friend... or as much of a friend as you could be in the fiercely rival minded and treachery filed academy on Korriban, where plotting another's demise was not uncommon.

"Good morning lord Briza, Darth Imperious asked me to inform you, that you are requested to attend a personal war meeting in his office as soon as possible." The holographic figure informed politely with urgency in her voice.

"Tell our lord that I will meet with him in teen minutes, and Deedrah, I hope we get to talk some other time." Briza replied quickly with the same urgency in her voice.

"So do I Briza. I will relay the information now, Deedrah out." She replied softly before returning to the serious demeanor from earlier and flickered out.

Briza took few seconds to washed herself, whereafter her _new_ servant droids dressed in her black lightweight sith armor.

Afterwards she was brought food, which she ate quickly on her way out of her penthouse, to Darth Veness former luxurious private speeder that had just been warmed up and prepared for immediate take off.

Briza entered her new personal speeder and took off from her private landing pad and raced into the midst of Kaas city.

* * *

OUTER RIM: near the Ord Canfre system.

The Golden Ray exited hyperspace, all three jedi's stood awaiting an incoming holocall and no less than a few seconds later they received the call. A man in a republic uniform appeared.

"Well met Jedi knight Xastra. I am Kelvan Jelsen of the SIS. I have been tasked by the jedi council inform you of your mission." The agent told them directly.

Tikala made a small bow as a courtesy and replied in a soft voice. "Well meet Kelvan. What is the situation on our mission?

"One of our contacts, an information broker who sells intel, who goes by the name 'Conro' has important info that you need to hear. We are setting up a holo meeting as we speak." Kelvan informed politely and to the point. A moment later he continued. "I have just received a message that he is ready to speak to you. Shall I put him through?"

"Yes please do!" Tikala politely urged him to proceed.

Kelvan nodded and a second person appeared beside him, "Greetings Jedi. I have been told you seek a group of bounty hunters from our sector."

"It's an evil group called the Tenkan bounty hunter Syndicate, ring any bells?" Mathorn impatiently cut in and asked directly.

Conro studied the zabrak for moment. "You are not very jedi like are you. And I wouldn't exactly call them evil. They have contributed much to our sector in the past decades"

"In which way have they contributed, _exactly_?" Jonathan asked skeptically to know the facts.

"Well for starters they kept both the empire and the republic off our door steps and secondly their founders helped our people in times of need." Conro elaborated while smiling. "So I would advise against attacking them, if I were you."

"Let's just say they have taken something of ours and we want it back. I too would like to see this confrontation resolved without any blood sheat." Tikala cooly replied honestly.

Conro smiled at the female jedi's reply. "That's what I like to hear... The funny thing is, they are still believed to be in our sector... But they moved recently and so far their new base is unknown.

"We would like to know that beforehand!" Mathorn retorted angrily.

Conro hold up a hand for Mathorn to shut up. "Luckily I have traced their recent activities to a space station in the Dathomir sector. Whatever you are after, it is most likely there."

The jedi looked at each other for a brief moment, but it was Jonathan who asked the question. "The station... is it controlled by the empire?"

"As far as I'm aware, it's the Tenkan Syndicate who controls it, but what they are doing in imperial space, is still unknown to me." Conro informed them of his latest intel.

"What are we waiting for, let's get to this spacestation of theirs." Mathorn impatiently stated.

Tikala was starting to get a bit annoyed with her brothers lack of manners. "Patient brother, if there is more to be learned, it would be unwise not to listen."

"There is one more thing you should know." Conro spoke to get their attention. When he had gotten their attention again he continued. "While they have never sided with the empire, they occasionally have done business with them in the past and some of their members could very well be sympathetic to the empire. I would advise you not to show them who you really are, unless you speak to their boss Yurian Tenkan directly, as he is a reasonable man who probably wouldn't sell you out."

"Thank you Conro for your invaluable information. You will be well compensated for this service." Tikala bowed.

"Always a pleasure to do business with a jedi." Conro replied and made a polite bow of his own before he disconnected the transmission.

Jonathan felt an overwhelming amount of unease come over him. "I sense a trap." He muttered, hoping he was wrong.

"No... I sense he spoke the truth... that much I am sure of." Tikala reassured them.

"No matter what, I'm setting a course for that space station. Master Buz isn't going to save himself." Mathorn muttered and went to the cockpit to plot a course through hyperspace.

Tikala and Jonathan looked at each other for brief moment nodded and went to check on the logistics and soon after they were once more flying through hyperspace, this time heading into imperial territory.

* * *

DROMUND KAAS: The office of law and order.

Briza arrived at Darth Imperious' office which in reality consisted of a series of interlinked rooms each with its own specific function in mind. She was shown to a particularly large chamber with a holo-desk dominating the lower central part of the floor. This room wasn't as richly decorated as the others she had just been shown through. Here the various exotic plants, paintings framed in gold and sculptures of respected artists, had taken a backseat in favor of a more practical no nonsense expression. Several terminal consols was arranged around the central desk ready to be used to support the leadership when needed. But the command bunker, which it for all intents and purposes was, was devoid of beings, except for the small cluster gathered in the middle. There were one other sith lord and two tall male assassins present in the office. The assassins, one zabrak like herself and the other human, had taken up position a respectable distance from the holo-desk letting their superiors have what space they needed.

"Thank you for joining us at such a short notice Lord Briza." Imperious politely welcomed the newly arrived Zabrak.

Briza bowed slightly. "I'm at your command my lord." She responded politely in a sincere tone.

Imperious smiled in return and turned to a tall robust male pureblood sith lord. "This is lord Kaliff. He will lead the operation to retake our lost space station back. With your intimate knowledge of the interior you will act as his adviser and second in command."

Both Briza and the large pureblood sith Kaliff nodded in understanding, as the high lord began to unravel the plan of attack. "In order to minimise casualty, I will initiate the operation by sending you four in, on a new prototype stealth ship, to shut down the station's defenses. You will be supported by a group of agents, specialized in slicing and sabotage. The fleet will be on stand by just out of sensor reach awaiting your signal. When Rear Admiral Tainor receives your signal, his orders are to jump to pre-assigned location and begin the boarding phase. With the boarding phase under way your secondary objective will be the capture of the rebel leadership for later interrogation. It should all be over in a matter of hours, so I expect you to prepare for the opposite... Any questions?"

Imperious looked seriously at each of them in turn as he finished on the question, all remaining silent at attention. "Very well, the ship is docked in my personal hangar. The operation will commence in five minutes." A hint of worry slid over his face, as he dismissed them. "Bring glory to the empire and may the force serve you well."

The four sith bowed and left for the hanger, a servant droid coming up to them. "My lords, this way please." the droid said in a synthesized voice and showed them the way to the hanger.

The hangar was filled with ships of all shapes and sizes, but the ship they were shown to, was the most unusual of all. The ship looked familiar, yet very unique. To Briza, the corvette looked like an oversized fury class interceptor with a disc shaped bridge attached to the front, half the size of the main hull. Besides the elongated oval shaped prototype cloaking generators mounted on the top and underside of the hull, the entire ship was covered in a black crystal overlay. The corvette housed two medium laser cannon turrets, four ion engines and two curved solar plates spanning the length of the hull. The locations of the turrets, on the top and underside, clearly told her that it was meant for defence against light armored fighters and she suspected that the flat circular cockpit in the front, was made that way to confuse short range radars.

"Welcome on board the Silent Fang." An Imperial agent said as he humbly stood aside to let the sith lords accent the bridge.

The the sith were shown a seat each as the ship took to the clouds and further out into space. As she was shown to her seat, Briza glanced around the ship. It was colored in red and dark gray to symbolize the empire. To her delight, she spotted her brother talking to his superiors, soon after the Silent Fang had taken to the sky and exited the atmosphere, the small fleet that would accompany them in retaking the station from it's rebel infestation, became visible in low orbit around Dromund Kaas.


	11. Episode 2: Deadly meeting: Part 2

SPACESTATION: Orbiting Dathomir

The crew of the Golden Ray came out of hyperspace to see what looked like the typical disk shaped planetary stations they had seen a thousand times.

As they approached the station, a grumpy voice came up over the comm channel. "Unidentified vessel, identify yourself and your business!"

Jonathan calmed himself before replying. "This is the captain of the Golden ray, we request permission to dock. I'm sending clearance code now."

"Hold your distance while we check your codes." The voice demanded over the comm.

Mathorn immediately halted the ship. "Now, let's see if our SIS forged identities live up to their reputation." Mumbled the Zabrak, as he waited to see if he needed to turn the ship around in a hurry.

"Your credentials checks out. You are clear to land in docking bay twenty two,

station control out." The voice affirmed.

"Super!" Mathorn exclaimed in relief. "Remind me that we need to give SIS a souvenir when we get home."

"I promise to remind you." Jonathan replied in good spirit.

Tikala stood silent for moment, when Jonathan turned to look if something was wrong, she answered. "Something isn't right. I sense too few people on board that station."

Both Jonathan and Mathorn looked at her with a puzzled expression, in Jonathans case it quickly changed to one of worry.

"Do you sense Master Buz?" Jonathan asked, even if he knew the possibility was slim at best.

Tikala shaked her head in defeat. "No, I don't sense any force presence at all."

"Hopefully it just means fewer people to avoid, if we need to escape." Mathorn phrased in an upbeat tone, as he steered the Golden Ray in for a landing and with little difficulty landed the spacecraft with little noise.

When they descended the ramp, they were greeted with the silence of space. Tikala reached out through the force and noted that there were no one in the hanger or anywhere around.

"Let's look around and see if someone wants to talk business." Jonathan said, playing into the role of a merchant, incase they were being watched.

With a solemn nod, they ventured into the space station with all gates and doors automatically opening when neared.

"Anyone home?" Mathorn asked, hoping anyone would answer. So far they had neither seen nor heard anyone.

Tikala began to feel uneasy. She sensed the trails of thousands of lives that had been walking these halls in a not too distant past. "This is strange... I can sense this place has been teeming with life recently, but where is everyone now?"

As they ventured forth, they came across a three dimensional map of the entire station. "A holo map, let's see where we are." Jonathan observed, sounding as chipper as he could manage.

"I say we should go to the control center, there is bound to be someone we can talk to there." Tikala suggested without showing any sign of the unease she felt.

A quick nod from both her companions, with Jonathan politely replying. "We'll follow milady."

As they entered the nearest elevator, to access the control center in upper section of the station. Jonathan pushed the button to take them to the top, but as they were going up the elevator suddenly vibrated violently.

"I got a bad feeling about this." Mathorn uttered very insecure, with Tikala and Jonathan thinking the exact same thing.

A split second later, the elevator weren't going up, but down.

Tikala reached out with force. It was difficult in a falling elevator to center oneself, but with Mathorn's and Jonathan's help, they stopped the rapidly descending elevator.

"'Pew'... Someone clearly doesn't want us here." Mathorn stated the obvious.

"I knew it couldn't be so easy." Jonathan muttered and cursed his luck.

"Let's decent down to the next exit." Tikala ordered calmly. When they reached the next exit point, she used the force to open the door since all power was cut. She sprang out of the elevator while her teammates held it steady. Turning with determination in her eyes, she unraveled her plan. "Listen. I'll lift the elevator up, so you two can get to the control center. I will find another way around."

"Roger that Sis. They aren't expecting us to use a broken elevator." Mathorn approved of the plan with a grin.

"May the force be with you." Jonathan uttered with a clear hint of worry in his voice, splitting up now just didn't feel right.

"You too. Keep your comms open and tell me once you have reached the control center." she smiled, as she again reached out with the force. With solid ground underneath her, she could easily move the elevator upwards at increasing speed until it mirrored the elevators usual pace.

Mathorn was beginning to feel a growing excitement inside him. "So now we're using a sister powered elevator, how cool is that!"

"Be prepared, I sense danger up ahead." Jonathan suggested with no sign of amusement in his tone.

"'Sigh'… Yes master." Mathorn continuing the joke, action always brightened his mood.

* * *

They reached the top floor with a loud clunk as the elevator made contact with the roof. "Ouch… You can stop here sis." Mathorn muttered the comment to no one in particular.

Jonathan used the force to open the elevator doors and they both exited as the elevator was released and fell down behind them. A man in white clothe walked casually by. "They survived!" He exclaimed and was just about to report the sighted jedi, but Jonathan were faster.

"There is only you, you haven't seen anyone here." Jonathan said in an melodious tone, while slowly waving his hand in front of him.

"There is _only_ me... I haven't seen anyone here." He just mumbled to himself and wandered off.

"So we _do_ have the element of surprise." Mathorn uttered delighted and added. "So, where to go next?"

"I believe the way to the control center is right up ahead." Jonathan informed and they both ran onwards.

They entered a room only illuminated by a dozen monitors, out of what looked like a thousand

unpowered monitors, which were placed on desks or hung from the walls. Papers were scattered all over the place, covering the floor and every other flat surface of the huge control center. "It looks like they abandoned their stations in a hurry." Jonathan observed, as he sat down in front of one of the only consoles still active. "Let's see if I known how to-, darn! A password."

"One dataspike coming up." Mathorn uttered with a grin and handed out a dataspike.

"Thank you." Jonathan just politely replied as took the dataspike and inserted it into the console. The dataspike flooded the system with junk data and soon after Jonathan had hacked his way to admin access of the whole network.

"Let's see if we can find the info we are looking for." It didn't take long before they found themselves overwhelmed with information on hyperspace trafik lanes, to and from the station. "This is going to take too long! Let's download the data and have SIS study it." He produced his datapad and began downloading the data.

Looking at the rate at which the massive amount of data was being copied, Mathorn mumbled a bit impatient. "This is going to take some time, should we just wait here?"

"We could start by calling Tika-" Jonathan was about to suggest, before both he and Mathorn felt danger coming their way.

A company of men in white uniform were rushing in. "Kill them!" the troopers shouted in unison and began shooting immediately thereafter, destroying a bunch monitors in the process.

Mathorn and Jonathan ignited their lightsabers fast enough to redirect the blaster fire using the shien lightsaber form. "So... we _don't_ have the element of surprise after all." Mathorn commented for no reason, as he used his yellow blade to redirect a lethal shoot to the head.

"It appears so." Jonathan sarcastically replied as his blue blade returned a blaster bolt right back at the attacker, searing a hole through the personal armor of one of the white clad men.

It didn't take many seconds before the men in white lay dead on the ground from the redirected blaster bolts that they themselves had fired from their own guns. "So... these guild members haven't had much training fighting jedi." Mathorn stated.

Jonathan was puzzled by the way they had just been charged. "I find this very odd. They just mindlessly kept shooting at us, no skill, no coordination, they aren't actually soldiers at all. These are regular people, who under normal circumstances would have fled or surrendered."

Mathorn yawned as a direct reply. "Details... We won, nothing else matters and my sister needs an update." He declared and called Tikala on the comm, while Jonathan looked on in disbelief.

* * *

IN THE MEANTIME: a few levels below

Tikala had been scouting around for a stairwell and had _so far_ avoided detection by using her ability to conceal herself in the force. Since all elevators were out of power, she had been forced to make use of stairs and other measures to get to the upper levels, which so far had resulted in her ascending two sets stairs.

As she was sneaking around, she felt a disturbance in the force. A dark presence were hastily coming their way. _"This is bad. The empire is on their way here!"_

As Tikala silently ran up the next set of stairs, she heard someone speak nearby. She carefully snuck in and listened.

The first she heard was a man speaking. "We have received intel that the second team is in route." A woman answered muttering. "So it's finally our turn to leave." As they turned a corner, she identified them both as being humans and dressed in white uniforms of some kind.

They neared the place Tikala was hiding and as they walked past her, she snuck up behind them and gently touched the back of their heads. "I am not an enemy. I wish only to learn of what you were talking." She spoke in trance like tone with a hypnotisitic effect.

As the Women was about to speak, she became expressionless for just a moment where after she crumbled down on the floor completely lifeless, her co worker staring in shock. "The... rumors... were... tru-!" he staggered in fear before he went through the same procedure, ending up lying motionless on the ground beside her.

Tikala was horrified, as she felt a dark energy severing their lifeforce from their body. " _What have I just witnessed! Is this a new sith technic? A new sinister way of withholding information from the enemy?!"_ It took her a moment to collect herself. As her comm began vibrating she quickly went back into hiding, before answering.

"Sister, good news, we managed to copy their log lists." Mathorn chipperly informed over the encrypted comm.

"I have just witnessed... never mind, it can wait. Where is your position?"Tikala asked, as she decided the horrifying tale could wait.

"We are on our way down to the ship. There is surprisingly silent around here, everyone seems to have fled." Mathorn commented, as the noise of running could be heard over the comm.

"Get to the ship and fast! I sense a darkness coming our way, and don't question anyone, I will explain later." Tikala firmy, but hurriedly order and cut the connection. She could feel the darkness closing needed to get back to the ship before someone could blow it up or otherwise disable it. She got out of hiding and sprinted down the corridor.

Tikala jumped down several stairs, until she got to the main hangar area, and sprinted back to the ship as fast as she could. A few people in white who were working in maintenance, just barely spotted the jedi before she was out of sight again.

To cut off time, she sprang up five meters and landed on one of three hanger walkways that were suspended with wires above the few ships docked beneath, as well as the cranes and other heavy equipment for loading and unloading of goods.

As Tikala ran, the feeling of something dark coming nearer became increased in strength. She stopped running when four black hooded figures blocked her path.


	12. Episode 2: Deadly meeting: Part 3

The sith lords had noticed the amount of fleeing personnel and as a result suspected little resistance, but to their surprise, they found a little jedi instead.

"A jedi!" Lord Kailf exclaimed. "I have _longed_ to kill jedi again." He hummed sinisterly to himself.

Briza ignored him. "JEDI! LAY DOWN YOUR LIGHTSABER AND GET OVER HERE WITH YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD, COMPLY AND YOU WILL BE SHOWN MERCY." She shouted the demand firmly.

Tikala thought for a short moment, but realizing that if she was captured it would likely mean that the information she was in possession of would be compromised. On the other hand if she ran away, she could put her brother and Jonathan in danger of being cut off from the hanger, so she had to stall for time, so she replied "I'm sorry, but I must-"

"This little jedi is _mine!_ " Lord Kalif proclaimed his right, turned on his crimson red lightsaber and charged before the little light skin zabrak could finish her sentence.

Tikala immediately ignited her own green blade, entering into the fencing stand of makashi and let the force guide her action.

Briza could feel the power quickly gathering in this little jedi, like gusts of wind gathering right before a tornado.

As the sith brute came thundering down on a jedi _half_ his size, he made a downward slash to cleave the jedi in half with his searing blade.

The only problem was, that despite the narrow walkway, she managed to side step his blade, then suddenly a burning pain erupted in his thigh and before he could act out his anger, his wrists were _cut_ in a blindly swift motion and the next moment the little zabrak jump over him and severed his achilles heel on his only good leg.

The other sith could only watch as their leader collapsed helplessly on the floor. His agony was clearly audible behind the little jedi, who ignited the other green blade in her lightsaber staff.

Briza and her team was left in shock, but this mockery could not be tolerated. "We will take her together!" She commanded and ignited her own red lightsaber, with her teammates mirroring her actions and charged.

Briza who was the frontrunner, leaped high over the jedi to get behind and flank the enemy, as the two others attacked head on. Even being flanked on the narrow guardrailed walkway, Tikala was still too nimble and too fast for them to get her pinned down.

Next they tried to overpower her with force lightning, but that didn't help much either, she just blocked it with her hand or caught it by her green double blade. She was dodging and dancing in the midst of battle with no apparent weakness to show in her versatile niman defensive style.

Despite a deceptive show of skill superiority, Tikala was in fact using the utmost of her capability and she knew she couldn't keep this up for long. She noticed that the two assassins were in possession of decent saber skills, but lacked the force power needed to be serious threats to her on their own.

There was something very familiar about the third sith though. The red zabrak, while strong in the force, it was like Tikala could sense exactly what she would do and when she would do it. She predicted the timing of the sith's low slash aimed at her legs and made a backwards flip and somersaulted over the red zabrak's head.

Since Briza now faced the whirlwind of a jedi _alone_ , she ignited her second lightsaber and swiftly attacked with a number of cleves and cuts, but they were easily deflected.

Not daring to jump over both raging combatants in fear of being cut down, the two sith sprang over to the other walkway and ran a couple of meters forward and sprang back.

Tikala was well aware of their tactic of flanking her and knew time was short, so she made a swift downwards cut at the legs of her adversary with only one blade active, forcing her opponent to make a quick side step. While her blade was in motion, continuing to turn on its own axis, she switched off the lightsaber, aiming the other end upwards and forwards, which made Briza's upper body or lightsabers vulnerable to disabling attacks.

One of the sith's lightsabers were made to only be held in one hand and equipped with a protective guard on the handle, the other was of a more regular design though and thereby a much easier target for disabling. She reactivated her second blade in her lightsaber staff for a quick stab and damaged the easier target's focusing lens, rendering it entirely useless.

With only one working lightsaber left, Briza back stepped to gain a little ground followed up by a series of force pushes. She used all her might to hold the jedi in place and give her assassins enough time to leap over and finish the job.

Because of this mysterious ability to know exactly what _this_ particular opponent would do, Tikala were able to redirected the force pushes up over herself, their impact braking loose thick cables formerly attached to a crane hanging above them, as well as having time to dodge an incoming saber throw from the human sith, intended to cut her head off.

* * *

In the meantime, Jonathan and Mathorn were nearing their ship, when Mathorn suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. "My sister is in danger!"

Jonathan turned around, trying to sense if there was any truth to this statement, but the only thing he felt was an immediate danger that fired deadly red blaster bolts in their general direction. "But we were ordered to go back to the ship!" He argued, as he redirected the blaster bolts away.

"You do that! I will go save my sister." Mathorn shouted with determination. "I'll come back with her!"

Jonathan felt conflicted, he wanted to tell him to get back here and follow the orders Tikala herself had given, but he knew well enough that they didn't have time to argue and that he would a lot of said time to convince Mathorn when in that state, so instead he just responded: "May the force-" Noticing that his friend already was running off, he ended the sentence and tried to cover Mathorn's heroics instead.

* * *

In another sections of the station, Terrow and the rest of the infiltration team had met no resistance getting into the station. When they reached the control center however, Terrow suddenly got a strong feeling of urgency. However unlikely it sounded to him, his sith lord sister was in danger. This made him pause just outside the control center, which spared his life, as a huge antipersonal combustion bomb detonated! The explosion fried everyone in range, killing all but him in a hell of fire, as well as burning most of their equipment in turn.

Terrow looked on in shock for a split second before he pulled himself together and called the ship over the comm, "Silent Fang this is agent Dexten Halen, do you copy?".

"We copy agent Halan. What is your status?" Came the static reply over the comm.

"Our Team is dead! The control center was rigged to explode. Only I survived." Terrow explained, as he tried to calm himself enough to sound professional.

"Only moments ago the onboard sensor array detected an unusual and powerful energy spike from the stations core... Our analysts have just informed me that this station is set to self destruct." The crew member hastily informed him.

"Inform lord Kailf at once!" Terrow instructed in all haste.

"We have tried! But something seems to be blocking our signal." The crew member apologizes with the utmost sincerity.

The revelation of the situation was about to unfold in Terrow's mind. "I will Inform him personally! Keep me updated." He said and sprinted back as fast as he could.

* * *

The male zabrak assassin was the first of the two to jump. He was greeted by a kick to the jaw that rendered him flat-footed for a split second. Had it not been for his human ally who managed to block a cut against his feet, he would have been out of the fight for good.

Briza was doing everything she in her power to halt her enemy, but everything she could dished up with ended up being dodged or blocked, even her fast paced chaotic joyo blade style seemed slow and... _surprisingly_ predictable to this little jedi. Her mind worked overtime to find a way to force the cursed jedi to submit or die.

From behind the fighting individuals, came a zabrak running to assist his sister, as soon as he spotted the sith flanking Tikala, he leaped high up into the air, with his yellow saber ready to cleave.

The zabrak assassin held up his crimson lightsaber to block, as the jedi came bearing down on him with strong and precise strikes, hammering hard at his defences. Since he had been trained as a stealthy killer, he was ill prepared to withstand the onslaught of a jedi two heads higher and with considerably more muscle mass behind his swings than he himself could muster.

The second Jedi's arrival, had just destroyed any chance Briza had had to force the first jedi to submit and surrender. _"Why didn't imperial intelligence pick up on any jedi involvement!"_ She cursed her luck, as she tried to figure out which jedi would be easiest to get rid of first.

Using the chaos and confusion her brother had created, Tikala jumped and grabbed the loose cable dangling from the ceiling. Mere moments later multiple lightsabers were thrown at her. She swung away right before the wire were cut in half and landed behind the human sith, who ignited his lightsaber staff's second blade and engaged with a flurry of strikes, high and low in quick succession.

Tikala on other hand did the opposite. She turned one of her blades off, countered with quick jabs and precise thrusts, out fencing her opponent. With a swift move she sliced the sith's blade in two and followed this up by wounding the human's stomach region and as well as slicing his wrist on his left arm. A moment later he was flying through the air after having been force pushed away, his two pieces of lightsaber accompanying him.

Briza had to jump away to avoid her flying comrade colliding with her. She called lord Kalif's lightsaber to her hand, she ignited it and engaged the little jedi once again, hoping for a miracle, since she was well aware of the fact that this _easily_ could be her last battle.

All the while Mathorn was forcing the zabrak sith back. When the sith tried to sprang away, he was pulled in close by Mathorn using force pull. With little space to maneuver he unleashed force lightning at the problematic jedi, but to little aweil. The lightning only coursed minor burn wounds as the sith couldn't seem to properly break through the jedi's force bobble.

In a last ditch attempt he made use of a series of faint attacks, which were supposed to lure his opponent's blade down and make his upper body vulnerable to strikes as well as a spin kick maneuver to at face of the jedi newcomer with his poison footwear, which would have worked had he been a split second faster, but to his dismay, the jedi had his saber ready to block the kick. The result was the burning agony a severed foot and the humiliation of being force pushed over the guardrail and down onto an empty landing platform followed by the last words he later would remember before he blacked out. "NOW _STAY_ THERE AND BEHAVE!"

After Mathorn's little escapade, he turned to his Sister, who still was occupied with the last sith standing. "Let's end this and get the hell out of here." He mumbled to himself.

As he leapt over to flank the sith lord, Mathorn felt a disturbance in the force, as well as a warning shout from his sister to look behind him... all a bit too late, as he was hit in the back by an explosive blaster bolt. Instead of landing behind the sith, he _crashed_ behind the sith, completely vulnerable and with an agonizing pain in his back. Had he not been wearing a light armor, he would probably have been dead right about now.

Briza who now was tired and exhausted, had more or less given up any hope of winning. Her mind was already working out a plan to retreat... so it came as _a bit_ of a surprise, when one of her enemies all of a sudden lay next to her with no way of initiate a viable defense.

Tikala saw the peril her brother was in and knew that he could be dead in seconds. She quickly dived in underneath the sith to save his life by redirecting the red blades with her own.

Briza saw her chance and instead of attacking an already wounded enemy, she angled her strike to cut the little zabrak jedi in half.

Tikala reacted instantly and ignited the other end of her dual lightsaber mere microseconds before the sith would have ended her here and now.

Briza felt a burning pain in her right forearm and had to make a quick step backwards before the injury became a severed arm.

Despite being shot, Mathorn quickly recovered from the blaster burn and got back on his feet. With a huge amount of determination and rage, he attacked and with a single heavy swing, he slammed Kalif's lightsaber out of the last Sith lords left hand.

With little time to recover, Briza gripped her remaining lightsaber with both hands and made a quick cross cut, but the injury made her attacks slow and predictable, forcing her back on the defensive.

Terrow was lining up a shot to finally finish the jedi who was in combat with his sister, when he suddenly felt the dreadfully familiar feeling of someone mentally grabbing him. It felt like a huge durasteel gauntlet had taken hold of him. The invisible force hurled him over the guardrail of the walkway he had been standing on just a moment earlier. After a relatively short flight, he was slammed down onto the other durasteel walkway, no bones broken, but sore and physically paralysed, as well as with a green lightsaber blade pointing directly at his throat.

As Tikala looked at the agent, who very possibly could have been the end of her brother, she caught a glimpse of the man's mind. What she saw there gave her an overwhelming feeling of familiarity, as if she had known him all her life... like they were somehow connected.

Terrow, sure his end was near, decided to meet the gaze of his executioner and stared definitely into the eyes of the female jedi... and gasped! What he saw in her eyes and facial features was so similar to his own, that they were almost identical. "It can't be?!"

"By the force! We are!" Tikala uttered in a astonishment. She definitely felt it in the force. "You are my _brother._ " It all clicked into place, that Zabrak sith with whom Mathorn was now dueling, was also of the same blood, her blood. "MATHORN! Don't hurt her. She is YOUR SISTER!"

"BRIZA! I BEG YOU, STOP FIGHTING! WE ARE THEIR FAMILY!" Terrow shouted pleadingly, an echo of his newly found sister.

Both Briza and Mathorn stod eyeing each other, both now with their lightsabers in a defensive position, ready in case of an attack. "SO... What now... no more fighting?" Mathorn asked in a _I can't fathom this_ kinda way, clearly hoping _someone_ would explain it to him.

Despite the _appearance_ of being combat ready, Briza's mind was locked in a frozen state of disbelief. She wanted to deny it, but she only had to look at the jedi infront of her, to see the same emerald green eyes as her own, the same facial features that resembled Terrow and on top of that, she could _feel_ it was true. _"How? I don't understand it... I was sent here to retake my old master's space station, and now, I have found jedi, who somehow are related to me?"_

At the same time, Terrow was lended a hand from the much shorter jedi, but to his mild surprise, he lifted up by the force instead.

Now, even Mathorn could easily sense their connection to one another, but as he did, he also noticed a _slight_ problem. "Sis... you know they are sith... _right_?! They could easily murder us at any time."

"No we won't." Briza muttered in a low voice. "It would be like killing apart of myself."

" _Really_? It didn't seem that way a moment ago. The hole in my back still hurts like hell." Mathorn pointed out with suppressed anger in his voice.

"Mathorn, please! They are not our enemy." Tikala pleaded. As she fully believe the sith, she decided to introduce herself." My name is Tikala Xastra... and this is my brother, Mathorn Xastra. It's an honor to meet you."

"First of, I would like to know, what two jedi are doing in imperial space!" Briza demanded.

"Since we are one big happy family now, let's just say we are here searching for a kidnapped jedi." Mathorn elaborated. "You wouldn't happen know anything about that?" He asked curiously.

"My master was kidnapped by a group of bounty hun-" Tikala began the tale, before sensing a new danger emerging.

Terrow got a warning signal on his comm and his facial color instantly turned pale. "We do not have time to talk! The station is set to blow up in less then five minutes!"

"BLOW UP!" Mathorn nearly screamed.

"My ship is close by, this way!" Briza quickly command.

Tikala just made a quick node and hurried after her newly discovered red sister, with Mathorn and Terrow right behind her.

Briza grabbed her comm link and shouted the order. "THIS IS LORD BRIZA! PREPARE THE SHIP FOR TAKE OFF IMMEDIATELY!

"Yes my lord!" came a quick reply over the comm.

" _So her name is Briza."_ Mathorn thought to himself as he tried to ignore the burning pain in his back.

At the same time Tikala called over her comm link, "Jonathan! The station is going blow up! Take the ship and get back to republic space immediately. We will escape together with some friendly imperials."

"WHAT! FRIENDLY IMPERIALS!?" Jonathan shouted in despair over the comm.

"Get yourself and the data back to the jedi order. I promise we are in good hands." Tikala tried to reassure him, but in the end she could only say. "May the force be with you."

"...May the force be with you too." Jonathan said in a worried weak reply.

" _That's a lot of faith she is putting on us, already."_ Terrow admitted to himself, overhearing Tikala's comm message.


	13. Episode 2: Deadly meeting: Part 4

The black ship named the Silent Fang, was attached to the outer hull of the hanger using magnetic clamps and a hole had been burned in the side of the station to let the squad board undetected. A few dozen soldiers stood guarding the transport, when they saw Lord Briza running toward them, they can to attention.

"TAKE OFF!" Briza screamed, as she, her brother and the two jedi boarded the ship. The ship detached from the station and took off, with the remainder of the squad securely on board.

No more than a few seconds later, the space station was torn apart from a large explosion erupting from the core. The resulting shockwave shook the ship violently, as ship-sized fragments were being hurled to all sides by the emens force of the explosion, one of the fragments hit the starboard of the ship. Alames chimed in the cabinet, as the pilot tried his best to get the ship under control and the maintenance crew scrambled to repair the damage before they had a serious air leak on their hands.

All the while three of the family members had quickly strapped themselves in the passenger seats, only Tikala still stood. As soon as the ship was repaired and ready, Briza send a message to the task force to return to Dromund Kaas, and soon after they too were flying through hyperspace.

First then, did Briza remember that her fellow lords had just died on the station. She didn't know if they would have had the time to save them or not, but one thing that was for sure... Darth Imperious _definitely_ would not be pleased to hear of their demise, not to mention the failed mission.

But now she faced another problem. _"How would she explain the two jedi passengers she had with her"_. Now that she glanced around, she noticed several of the crew members looked puzzled at the new arrivals.

"This is my new Apprentice, a powerful rogue jedi." Briza was quick to introduce and continued. "And she is-"

"They cannot see me. To them I'm but a shadow." Tikala whispered in explanation.

Briza, looking back at the crew member, now noticed that no one was actually looking at her new found sister. In fact, they were all looking at her with an confused expression.

Despite the koltur spray he received to cure his blaster wounds, Mathorn mostly just wanted to murder all these _darn_ imps! To his knowledge, they had brought only suffering and mayhem wherever they had gone.

Tikala noticed her brothers unease with a clear hint of hatred and lay her hand on his shoulder, whispering softly. "You can't blame these people for the sufferings of billions. They are only doing their duty. Do you sense any evil or malice around you right now?"

Mathorn shrugged, but as always, his little sister was right. These were calm and seemed friendly. Now that he thought about it, his new sister too seemed calm and inviting, not like the other sith he had fought in the great war. While she was clearly connected with the darkside, he didn't feel like it was about to devour everything it could get its hands on, and thereby it was not an immediate thread to him or his little sister.

Briza waved Mathorn over and blinked to Tikala for her to follow, as she opened a door into a small cavine. When all three had entered, she locked the door and looked around at her new half siblings. "Now we can speak in peace."

Mathorn was the first to speak his boggled mind. "Ahm... am I the only one who still finds all this weird and confusing, we go to a space station to save a jedi master and instead we end up finding a sith lord who is really our half sister and an agent who is also our half brother? It just seems too wacky to be a coincidence."

"This is no coincidence, the force wants us to meet." Tikala told them with conviction and continued to speak her belief. "I firmly believe we are meant to work together to solve this mystery."

Briza had to agree with Mathorn, this seemed to abnormal, but the whole _will of the force_ seemed too far fetched to her. Still it presented a unique opportunity. "Then I have a plan. Come with me to Dromund kaas, as it seems to me this mystery has its origin in imperial space. Besides that, I have just reported that, 'you' Mathorn, is a rogue jedi who got away from your order and seeking a new life of freedom."

Tikala nodded at the words, but her facial expression turned to disagreeal. "I agree that we would be better situated from your home, than a jedi temple, to uncover this. But it sounded to me like you were recruiting Mathorn as your sith apprentice and I will not allow you to push him towards the darkside."

Briza smiled, as she knew this part would surface. "It is my intention to use you as an apprentice Mathorn, but light or dark matters little, as long as you behave like a sith apprentice."

"Well, I _do_ need a master to complete my knighthood, but I doubt the order would have liked it to be a sith lord who finished my training." Mathorn pointed out, as a joke. "Maybe both of you could train me? ...Perhaps?" He continued, suddenly giving it serious thought.

"Trained by a sith lord and a jedi knight... that could be interesting to see." Briza hypothesised and nodded in aprovement.

"I would agree on the condition that, I am allowed to send messages to the jedi order." Tikala said, layed out her temes.

Briza was in no way happy to allow communication with the sith's sworn enemy, but if she was going to win her new and powerful jedi sister over and use her in an upcoming struggles to maintain her new power base. She needed to win her trust based on more than similar bloodlines. "If you only report about your own and Mathorn's status, I will allow it."

"We are in agreement then." Tikala smiled chipperly. "Since we are working together now, could you share your reasons for operating this far from your own core worlds?" she asked politely.

Briza thought for a moment, debating how much to reveal. In the end, she told almost everything, from when their own battleship had opened fired on them, to right before she stumbled upon Tikala.

In turn, Tikala told the entirety of their mission mentioning the station workers who fell dead before her, after she had tried to use force persuade to get them to answer her questions.

That story left Briza puzzled. She knew of many horrifying techniques within the darkside, but this one was one of the more extreme. "I can only think of our emperor who would be capable of such."

"Question, how old are you... _master_ Briza?" Mathorn asked suddenly, since he would like to know if he was big brother or little brother.

Briza didn't see age as a matter of great import, but she did catch what her new apprentice was getting at, so she replied directly. "I am thirty one Dromund kaas cycles."

"I am twenty three Coruscant years, or cycles if you prefer." Tikala infomed in her usual polite tone.

"Twenty Five... cycles here." Mathorn told them flat out.

"I'm not familiar with Coruscant's cycles. How much is that in Dromund kaas cycles?" Briza asked, as she pondered the difference.

"Where is Jonathan when I need him, he knows planets and cycle stuff." Mathorn complained and remembered he left his datapad back on the golden ray.

Briza went to the door and opened it. "Agent." She firmly called, where after her younger brother came over.

"Milord?" Terrow replied politely and bowed before entering and closing the door behind him.

In the little cabin, Terrow took a seat next to the two jedi, who greeted him with smiles.

"Terrow, question one. What is the difference between Dromund kaas cycles and Coruscant cycles? Second, how old would I be in their calendar." Briza asked directly.

Terrow rubbed his head, while he calculated the numbers in his head. "Well, it takes Dromund kaas 312 days to orbit the sun and it takes 368 days for Coruscant to do the same, which would make you twenty seven and myself twenty two _Coruscant_ years old."

"Hi sis, we have a new big Sister and a little Brother." Mathorn beamed cheerfully, almost childish, as he looked a Tikala who just nodded slightly in turn.

Briza replied with a shook of her head, while closing her eyes in apparent resignation at Mathorn's words, but she did find it fitting that she was the oldest and thereby naturally the leader of their little family. One thing struk her though. "Tikala, would you be able to conceal your force presence from anyone, even members of the dark council?"

"I believe so. I have only had trouble concealing yourself from my master and Grand master Satele Shan, but I have been told that people who know me, can sense my presence better. So in the end, yes I believe I could remain hidden from your superiors."

"Briza, I have an idea." An idea Terrow had been toying with for some time now. "Since you were technically _saved_ by me, you could use your rank to file a request for me to be transferred to your powerbase. That way I would be able to use my time exclusively on digging up information for your missions."

Briza lite up. "Of course, that wouldn't be suspicious, since it easily could be interpreted as a reward for your service to me." She smirked but with a clear hint of pure happiness in her voice. "Wait here, I will file the request immediately."

As Briza left, Mathorn nudged his new Brother in the side with his elbow. "So, why aren't you an evil sith lord? Like everyone's favorite big Sister?"

Terrow sighed at the question. "...Well I tried... and failed miserably. You could say I'm not very strong in the force. Had it not been for Briza, I would have died in training."

" _So_ she has a heart!" Mathorn uttered with a wide smile. "That's a relief... Now if we can only get her back home to Tython.. I want to introduce her to Jonathan and Urr'Tar."

"She will make her choice, when the time comes." Tikala spoke her peace, she knew that her imperial siblings could end up facing a similar situation, as the one Mathorn and she found themselves in now.

Terrow wasn't sure how to reacted. He wouldn't want Briza, or himself for that matter, to defect to the republic. Aside from the oath he had sworn to never betray the emperor or the empire, the bureaucratic republic just seemed incredibly inefficient and corrupt for his taste.

Tikala could sense her little Brothers thoughts and softly asked. "If I may ask? I have heard stories of Dromund kaas, but what is it really like?"

"Well first of all, it's a swampy forest planet, and lightning clouds fills the sky. " Terrow told and continued in more dark tone. "It is said, that the emperor created lighting storms in the atmosphere to keep invaders at bay."

The door opened and Briza entered. "I have filed the request for your transfer to my powerbase."

"Powerbase? Do you have your own personal army or something?" Mathorn asked surprised, it sounding to him as if he was going to war again, but this time on his Sister's side.

"All high ranking sith lords have their own place of operation, mine was inherited from my late master, Darth Veness. I have a large number of droids, but most of them are servant droids, only a hundred are build for combat." Briza elaborated for her siblings. She was really starting feel like the elder of this new family.

"A Darth? What does _Darth_ actually mean? And will you become a Darth in the future?" Mathorn eagerly wanted to know.

"Darth means an embodiment of death, only the greatest of sith lords may bear the title 'Darth' And will I become a Darth... that remains to be seen, only if I prove myself to the dark council, can I be elevated to the title of 'Darth'." Briza explained, but she did know one thing. If she could get her new siblings to help her, her chances were high.

"Darth Briza, lord of awesome jedi." Mathorn smirked in delight over his own cleverness, but to his dismay no one seemed to share his enthusiasm.

" _He definitely isn't lacking in confidence."_ Briza thought to herself, as she pondered how good an apprentice he could become. _"One thing is certain, he needs to be educated in sith society and culture."_

* * *

"I am tired, where can I sleep?" Mathorn asked.

"You can sleep next to me." Terrow offered his hospitality.

"Fair enough." Mathorn muttered satisfied.

"I will just stay hidden in the cargo hole." Tikala uttered. For her, the comfort of a bed was rarely needed, as she would mostly meditate to regain her strength. Only after months had passed by, was sleep a requirement.

"No you won't, you will share my room." Briza offered in a friendly but firm voice.

"It's not necessary. We Jedi meditate instead of sleep." Tikala explained in a calm tone.

"What is this jedi nonsense! _Every_ creature needs to sleep." Briza declared, not in the mood for a discussion.

"Just go with her. I don't think our new Sister takes no for an answer." Mathorn suggested with a grin, to him this was funny.

Tikala sighed. She knew arguing would get her nowhere. "If you wish."

"Good. This way." Briza smiled softly and gestured for Tikala to follow.

Terrow remained silent, but inside he was smiling _"it's good we are doing so well together, despite our different allegiances."_

* * *

Mathorn followed Terrow to the crews quarters, plenty of bunkbeds were unoccupied as the result of the people who had died on the space station.

After the brothers had made themselves comfortable, Mathorn, who slept in the bed right above Terrow's, leaned out over his bed and asked with a very curious tone to his voice. "So... How is it to be an imp?"

Terrow looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"You know, working for the dark side, torturing people, constantly fighting for power and bowing down to an evil emperor." Mathorn told in a casually voice.

Terrow just chuckled and asked. "Is that how the republic sees us?"

"Pretty much." Mathorn replied with a grin.

Terrow thought about asking Mathorn about the life in the republic, but this was neither the time or place for such direct questions... "Sorry about shooting you in the back earlier. I hope you don't bare a grudge." Terrow apologized, as he knew what grudges could do to some people.

Mathorn just shrugged. "Naah, it barely hurts anymore... Let's just say you owe me a drink and call it a day."

Terrow chuckled, this was not at all the way he pictured a jedi. "Sure... I'll show you a good cantina tomorrow."

A human navigator who also was about to go to bed, commented in a low voice. "All you Zabraks looks the same."

Both Mathorn and Terrow had to suppress a laughter. Aside from their different skin colour, they did look very similar.

"This has been a crazy day, I wonder if tomorrow is going to be even more strange?" Mathorn pondered in a low voice.

"Aside from visiting Dromund kaas, and having a drink at one of local cantinas, I don't know." Terrow replied in an equal low voice.

Mathorn had a thousand thoughts running through his head. He felt odd laying in a bed on an imperial stealth ship, but not long after, fatigue won and sleep overcame him.


	14. Episode 3 Together in the shadows Part 1

**STAR WARS**

 **THE CRIMSON BLIGHT**

Chapter 3: Together in the shadows

OUTER RIM: On board the Silent Fang

Tikala awoke from her sleep, disturbed by the presence of a great darkness getting closer. Her first action was to take a quick look around the cabine, as she had trouble getting a sense of where she was and how she ended up in this place, until she noticed her newly discovered sister still asleep to her left, then she remembered yesterdays events. She had been _ordered_ to share the bed with her sith lord of a sister.

" _The darkness I am feeling, must be their home world of Dromund kaas."_ Tikala tried to calm herself through meditation, but the strong presence of dark energies made it difficult. _"I hope... I'm not making a huge mistake by coming to the imperial capital."_ She worried inside herself, she seriously doubted anyone on the council would approve of the actions they were undertaking. But the feeling that this was the way the Force wanted her to take, still felt as clear as ever, even if it was pointing her to a world engulfed in the dark side.

"Go back to sleep. You'll get used to the sith world soon enough." Briza mumbled with her eyes still closed.

"I'm sorry if I woke you." Tikala apologized quietly in a soft voice. "I just feel this cold darkness getting closer and I have trouble shutting it out." She said in earnest.

"If I hadn't experienced your power from yesterday, I would have called you a weakling." Briza mocked her sister, despite still all too clearly remembering, how she fought this _tornado_ of a jedi and how she was bested by her superior speed. Not forgetting about the injury under her arm could still be felt, despite the kolto treatment.

"It's not weakness to show you are worried." Tikala argued in a low voice, then added for emphasis. "I have seen you worry for Terrow, that's not weakness... that's the good in you."

"Just go back to sleep." Briza mumbled blankly, not bothering to argue the point with a jedi, and turned around in her bed to face the other way.

Tikala sat up for a minute or two, before thinking to herself. _"I might as well get used to it now, since it's only going to get more difficult from here on out."_ And she too moved under the blanket, trying to relax. She silently recited the jedi mantra in her mind a few times before sleep came to her again.

* * *

DROMUND KAAS: orbiting the planet.

Mathorn watched out of the viewport, as the Silent Fang reemerged under the thick carpet of storm clouds, to a world where the sun seemed to have vanished, a world where only the gloom of night remained, just luminted by flashes of the constant roaring lighting in the sky. With the sound of heavy rain hamming on the hull of the ship, Mathorn spoke with a clear hint of fear in his voice. "I have never felt so much darkness in my life."

Tikala who stood besides him nodded, but said nothing as she didn't want to take any chances with her cloaking ability at this moment. The aura of the darkside made her unsure if she would remain unnoticed when they made their landing.

* * *

The Silent Fang touched down in a hanger on the outskirt of Kaas city.

The crew, including Terrow, departed the spacecraft as the first, with Briza and Mathorn descending the stairs with Tikala following in their shadows.

" _...At least I don't think anyone noticed me."_ Tikala though as she tried to be positive, but the overwhelming feeling of this nexus of darkside energy ran as icy chills through her body. The planet itself was definitely the first challenge she needed to overcome... and she needed to use her force flash ability on every camera she would encounter on her way, pointing in her directions. Were it not for Briza and Mathorn blocking the view from the front, this would have been an impossible feat.

As they walked through the halls of the large spaceport, people moved out of their way, to let the sith lord pass. Some even bowing in respect for the black caped figure.

Mathorn looked around at the different people present there, noticing their behavior. He liked the respect he got just by being beside his sith Sister. "I could get used to this kind of respect." He muttered in a cheerful tone. As they moved passed a hanger entrance, he saw dozens of slaves being held in cages there. _"This! I hope I will never get used to though."_ He thought to himself while his anger flared up to an explosive level, from seeing a large bearded slaver backhand a yellow-skinned female Twi'lek.

A speeder was hovering at the front gates of the spaceport ready to pick them up. However, before they reached the speeder, Briza angled her head slightly downward and whispered to her little sister. "Once we reach our initial destination, you will need to stay hidden in the cap. The meeting shouldn't take too long."

Briza was the first to enter the speeder, with Tikala quickly, but silently, occupying the middle, and Mathorn seating himself to the other side. "First and foremost, we need to report to my superior, Darth Imperious and personally explain the situation." Briza stated as a matter of importance. Right before they had landed on Dromund Kaas, they had been ordered to the office of law and order.

"Imperious? Is he as evil as the rest?" Mathorn asked partly as a joke, partly serious.

"If he is evil?..." Briza repeated the odd statement. "I don't know much about him, but he is the one who keeps law and order on Dromund Kaas, answering directly to Darth Mortis."

Mathorn had heard of Darth Mortis, one of the tolv members of the dark council. "So is Imperious like some sort of mayor or chief law enforcer?"

"Sort of both actually. He is the one that sees to it that the law is being upheld on Dromund Kaas, while directing all the administrational sides of the city." Briza explained.

Mathorn nodded. "So no jokes I take it?" He asked with a grin.

"Mathorn! I want you to be at your best behavior, and speak only when spoken to." Briza commanded. She was already in deep water from failing the mission, but at least she was relieved not to originally having been the leader of the operation. Had she been, her situation would most assuredly have been met with severe repercussions. In fact she, at least on paper, was the one who had made sure the rest of their task force hadn't been vapourized.

"Sure, I know my part." Mathorn tried to reassure her, but even he himself, was feeling uneasy about the situation. If this sith _overlord_ even suspected their cover story to be what it was, he would definitely be tortured until he revealed everything.

Tikala settled in and made herself as motionless as possible. _"At least the driver is a droid..."_

They landed on a platform attached to the towering office complex, a citadel of duracrete and transparisteel, and Darth Imperious seat of power.

Like half a dozen other rainsoaked beings, Briza and her apprentice ascended the large grey permacrete slabs that made up the stairs in front of the entrance. The pale bluish lightsource built in to each slab guaranteed independence from the sporadic flashes of light produced by the crackling lightning above and provided relatively secure footing on the rain slicked paving. As they reached the gates a number of imperial guards eyed Mathorn with suspicion and distaste. Past the open blast doors and the security check-in, a large grey hall stretched out before the arrivals. As with the spaceport, the entrance halls soaring walls were bare aside from the red banners displaying the hexagonal symbol of the sith empire. Between the banners were enormous pillars reinforced with durosteel beams built to withstand the blast of a proton bomb. Further two rows of pillars ran parallel along the halls central aisle. Following the red carpet, past eerie looking golden statues, they reached the end of the hall and the reception desk, which blocked the only way into the heart of the complex, namely a series of intricately etched golden elevators built in to the far wall. The hall in general as well as the reception area in particular, were busy with grey clad bureaucratic looking beings, imperial officers and low ranking sith of multiple species, all inroute to their various appointments.

They stepped out of the elevator and entered the antechamber, where a sith pureblood female was seated at a desk writing on a console. She looked up at them and politely greeted them. "Good day, Lord Briza. Darth Imperious will see you in a moment."

"Very well." Briza polity replied and continued, now smiling softly as she went over to take a seat. "I hope you have time to talk afterwards, Deedrah."

The sight of this _beautiful_ sith caught Mathorn a bit off guard. He just stared at her. He was amazed how good looking a sith pureblood could be. "I had no idea, they came in a _sexy_ edition!" He mumbled to himself with a wide grin, unfortunately he was just loud enough that both Briza and the pureblood Deedrah heard it clearly.

Briza was perplexed. She had never expected a jedi could be this rude and gave him an angry glare in response. "Behave or die!" She threatened with venom in her voice.

Deedrah was used to unintelligent compliments about her looks, but _never_ from a jedi. They were always so overly polite to the point of stupidity and apologized for every little thing that in the slightest could be construed as being inappropriate. So the only conclusion she could come to was... "He is _definitely_ no jedi." She muttered and just gave him a disapproving look in return.

Mathorn was certain he was in trouble. "Ahm… My bad girls, we are all friends... Right?" He said in a more or less pleading tone.

"My lord will see you now. Please keep the ill-mannered jedi in line, My Lord is not in a good mood." Deedrah advised with a grim expression on her face.

Briza nodded solemnly and pushed Mathorn inside Imperious office.

At the far end of the office, behind an elegantly ornate obsidian desk, adorned with a gilded relief containing scenes depicting eerie figures resembling those from the hall, Darth Imperious sat with his back to the door looking out across the cityscape before him.

Entering the office, Mathorn felt intense dark power emanating from the Darth before him. He began to feel a cold spreading through his body, even his spine began to shiver. With the cold, negative emotions started to creep into his subconscious, fear most of all.

"My lord, I have returned as you requested." Briza said formally, while falling to one knee and bowing her head, with Mathorn mimicking his sister, fearing the consequence of failing to doing so.

"Lord Kallif was a powerful warrior, one of my strongest, yet he is not with you now." Imperious swiveled his chair slowly, turning towards his subordinate. "Tell me why you survived, when all my other servants did not?" Imperious asked damningly as he fixed his gaze on her.

Briza swallowed a lump in her throat, before speaking. "Lord Kallif was strong, but he underestimated our opponents. He was killed before we were able to intervene-"

"He attacked me! I kinda had to kill him, so I wouldn't be killed." Mathorn bluntly loudly stated.

Briza wanted to punch her Brother for speaking out of turn, but Imperious just casually rose from his chair and walked closer to take a better look at the jedi. "A jedi renegade. One with no honor and loyal only to himself." He tentatively presumed, his expression changing to one of slight eagerness as he inspected the beige skinned Zabrak more closely. "I sense your raging anger, burning under the surface, a volcano on the cusp of eruption. Use it, and you will be able to unlock the potential hidden within you."

Mathorn's memory of the slaver abusing the Twi'leks was still lingering in his mind and was only becoming more vivid with each passing moment, filling him with rage.

Imperious turned to Briza issuing the order. "Make sure to teach him _properly_ in our ways. He could be of use to us."

Briza bowed for emphasis and replied. "Your wish is my will."

With a nod of acceptance, Imperious turned to Mathorn and spoke with a clear hint of his aristocratic heritage present in his voice. "Leave us."

Mathorn made a small hasty bow, like he had seen Briza do, rose from the floor and left with the door sliding shut behind him.

Imperious made a small gesture of his hand, signaling Briza to rise from the floor.

"You have found an unusual specimen. I don't sense much of the jedi calm in him." Imperious continued in a foreboding tone. "It's as if, he have been trained by someone who _wanted_ him to go to war, rather than to become the archetypical pacifist we so despises."

"He is strong in the force, one the jedi could never truly control. I believe He will become a powerful sith warrior." Briza stated her belief with emphasis.

"If you are able to handle him, that is. See to it, that you succeed." Imperious ordered and changed the topic. "From what you have submitted in your report, it seems clear that the station was being rigged as some kind of a death trap, that would simultaneously cover their tracks from potential pursuers. And none of you felt the faintest hint of the _dark_ presence from earlier?"

Briza thought for a moment before replying. "No... However, Mathorn told me he and his companions had felt a dark presence before our task force arrived. I suspected it was us, _it_ was interested in, not the jedi."

"As our _friends_ on the other side would say: it's seems like _the force_ has chosen you for this task... You will continue this assignment and be granted use of the Silent Fang until it has been completed or you _die_ trying." Imperious uttered in a sarcastic yet firm tone.

"I am honored my lord, and I assure you, I will do everything in my power to hunt this _thing,_ dead or alive." Briza told truthfully. _"Even working directly with Jedi to do so."_ She thought to herself, knowing full well that her jedi siblings most likely would be her key to victory.

* * *

In the meantime in the antechamber.

The meeting with this dark lord was one of the most intense none combated experience Mathorn had ever witnessed. _"I survived... and he didn't seem too pissed at us."_

The doors of the elevator slid open and a tall, highly muscled male sith pureblood entered the chamber. Mathorn barely noticed the sith, now speaking to Deedrah, before he took a seat opposite the jedi.

"Look what the kath hound has dragged in! A jedi. You will end up squashed, like little gizka in a garbage compactor." The tall sith laughed sinisterly.

Mathorn just casually looked up at speaking sith lord and replied. "Shut up. Can't you see I have better thing to do then humor a stupid tub of bantha fat."

The sith brute turned angry, mostly because he hadn't expected the jedi to make such an insulting comeback at him. He responded in a very aggressive tone. "I'll Rip your flesh from your bones!"

Mathorn just laughed and replied. "Big talk coming from someone who've clearly been spawned from a hole in the ground. Why don't you just do us all a favor and throw yourself into an reactor core."

"YOU FILTHY WORM! I WILL TURN YOUR INSIDES OUTSIDE!" The sith retorted loudly.

"Hollow words, from a big stinking pile of red excrements." Mathorn countered, grinning from ear to ear, all the fear from earlier having vanished completely and replaced with pure exhilaration.

Deedrah was getting rather annoyed by the brutes increasingly hostile mocking. "If you are going to kill each other, do it outside! So I don't have to clean up your mess up afterwards."

"A fistfight! The landing platform! Now!" The sith demanded in pure frenzy and knew he would explode in mere seconds, if his challenge went ignored.

"Landing platform seven is free, lord Vendictous." Deedrah stated deadpanned, as she booked the platform under _Special circumstances_.

Mathorn grinned as he followed the brute out. "I hope there is a _long_ way down." Despite the danger he was clearly in, the anticipation of the fight, filled him with untapped energy he hadn't felt in what seemed like forever.

* * *

As soon as they sat foot on the platform, Mathorn punched the sith hard in the face. "Tag! You are it!"

Vendictous staggered a bit, then unyielding rage engulfed him. He charged right into the grinning jedi.

Mathorn was quite certain he could out maneuver the brute with agility and superior food work... He was wrong. A huge fist hit him square on the cheekbone, slamming him backwards. His head was spinning from the vicious attack, he tasted blood as he realized that he was drawing dangerously close to the edge of the platform and at least a thousand feet free fall.

"Was that really all you got?" Vendictous taunted the jedi, somewhat disappointed.

Mathorn just rose up again, brushed his clothes and even with a clear purple mark on his face, he stood proud and ready. "Let the real fight begin."

Again Vendictous charged head first, with all his might and rage.

But Mathorn was taught in the acrobatic fighting style Ataru, which used the entire body as a weapon. As soon as he had jumped over the sith, a meter before impact, he kicked the turning sith in the stomach and followed up with a series of pummeling strikes, only occasionally having to jump away or dodge under a huge incoming red fist.

Vendictous felt the pain, but he gladly embraced it, as he only grew more powerful, the pain fueling his rage.

"What's the matter? Can the red sack of crap not keep up?!" Mathorn tormented the sith, punching and kicking him every time the sith missed his mark.

"YOU WON'T GET AWAY!" Vendictous retorted with venom in his trout and shifted tactic. Using the force, refusing to follow the agile jedi, he dragged him in close to finally end this nuisance.

As Mathorn was jumping over and around his opponent, to get into an optimal striking position, he was suddenly pulled toward the sith, like a rope had just entangled his entire body. The sith grabbed him with his huge hands and slammed him down onto the hard durasteel platform, his entire body screaming in pain and his head spinning once again from impact.

"Now you die!" Vendictous smiled sinisterly, about to crush the zabrak's chest under his large metal plated boot.

When Mathorn retorted. "No you don't!" and grabbed his boot. He knew he couldn't stop it physically, so instead he used the force to blast the sith high up in the air, slamming him into the platform above them and letting him crash back down onto their platform.

Vendictous couldn't remember the last time he wanted to kill someone as _bad_ as he wanted to kill this zabrak renegade jedi. He reached out with his force and pulled the jedi in once again.

But Mathorn wasn't ready to be a rag doll for a second time, first he used momentum to gain speed, then he made a small force push to halt Vendictous force pull for just enough time, for him to land a kick strait in the sith's head, hard enough to cause him to stagger. He followed this up by jumping on top of the beast and use a force enhanced punch directly down onto his skull.

Vendictous felt the pain, but this time his force bobble took the worst of the punch, making him able to instantly grab this nasty piece of jedi filth and slammed him down on the floor with a loud crack.


	15. Episode 3 Together in the shadows Part 2

In the meantime, Briza got a sense of urgency... she quickly realized it was coming from Mathorn, _"Mathorn? What are you doing?!"_

"It appears that your apprentice is attempting to prove himself able to handle even one of my most brutal sith warriors." Imperious stated. "Shall we watch? I find the best confrontations are those that happen naturally." Imperious invitingly suggested, not waiting for an answer.

"Yes, I would like to see if he is among our best." Briza nonchalantly agreed, while hiding her frustration over _this_ insane jedi.

To Briza's surprise, it was the same sith she had watched fighting her rival back on Korriban, all those years ago. Even without lightsabers involved, it seemed suicidal to fight this monster of a sith as she could clearly see the bruises and scratches her brother had received. _"Mathorn you bloody idiot! Have all sense left you?! Or have I mistaken the fact that you had any to begin with?!"_ She wanted smack him for his stupidity _._ But after a closer look she also noticed lord Vendictous had a number of noticeable marks, especially on the head.

Mathorn could feel a few of his ribs had been bend invert, but swallowed the pain. "My first day on a sith planet, and I am already in need of a kolto bath." He mumbled nearly inaudible, but the words were lost as an invisible hand grabbed around his throat and dragged him up in the air. _"I am In deep trouble"_.

Vendictous was revelling in seeing the life slowly being choked out of Mathorn. "It is a joy to see you struggle, as the life leaves your pathetic husk of a body!" To savour the suffering, he dragged him up close to gaze into the face of the zabrak jedi. "I am going remember your death!"

Gathering what strenge he had left, instead of wrestling with the invisible hand around his throat, Mathorn instantly grabbed the shoulders of the sith and slammed his spiky forehead into the siths completely unprotected bald head.

"AHHHHHH!"Vendictous screamed in agony at the burning pain in his already pain inflicted head, he collapsed backwards and nearly lost consciousness.

Mathorn coughed heavily as he fought to regain his breath, while barely being able to stand up.

In sheer rage, Vendictous roared and ignited both his crimson lightsabers, charging directly for Mathorn, who turned his own yellow lightsaber on and entered a defensive position.

"THAT'S ENOUGH! Both of you, turn off your lightsabers." Imperious demanded, leaving them no room for misinterpretation. "I have seen enough!"

Vendictous stopped when he heard his master's call and got back to his senses. As ordered he turned off his lightsabers."You were lucky!" He sneered and walk back to the building.

Mathorn too turned of his lightsaber and clicked it to his belt. He was about to come with a smart remark, but his lounges were still lacking the necessary air to speak probably.

Imperious turned to Briza, with an unreadable expression. "Now I know how this lone jedi _might_ have killed lord Kallif. Make sure he doesn't kill or injure any more of _our_ people." He ordered politely, but with a clear hint of threat in his voice.

"Yes my lord. He will be ours to command within days." Briza promised, as she truthfully believed he could be handled.

Imperious smiled to himself. "Good... but take care not to pledge yourself too hasty in future... You are both dismissed."

Briza bowed, turned around and walked down to the battered half brother of hers. "You are a disgrace." She scolded and slapped him on the left cheek.

"He started!" Mathorn complained like a little child.

Briza sighed deeply. "I no longer know what you are, but reckless is certainly one of them." She then turned around and in a softer voice said. "Come, let's go home, our new _agent_ is properly already there."

Mathorn didn't reply, he just followed her back to the cap that was patiently awaiting their return.

Tikala was still seated in the middle when they entered. The droid snapped back to life and asked. "Where to my lord?"

"Home." Briza uttered, not caring to hide her tiredness toward a simple droid.

"Yes my lord." The droid just replied and took to the air.

* * *

They landed right outside the entrance to Briza's massive dark skyscraper, with the outer layer made mostly of dark transparisteel. The building itself reflecting the repeated flashes from the thunderstorm roaring outside the main part of the city. "Here we are." Briza announced, when all three had exited the cap. "This is your new home, here on Dromund Kaas." She declared with renewed energy.

"Tall and gloomy." Mathorn muttered as a reply, as he studied the several stories high transparisteel tower.

As soon as the cap was gone, Tikala exploded in a half crying voice. "Please Mathorn! never attempt something so dangerous again!" She pleaded. "I was inches away from jumping out of the speeder to help you. I could feel you slipping from life itself! I beg you! Never do something so unneededly dangerous again." She recited the jedi code in her mind to calm herself.

"...Yes sis... I won't do _that_ again." Mathorn muttered an half baked apology. He couldn't remember if he had ever seen Tikala this worried and fatigued before, it made him feel a little ashamed to be the course of it.

"Was it not for lord Imperious, you might not have survived." Briza coldly told them, as a matter of fact.

Mathorn wanted to make a remark, but he was too tired to think of anything _good_ to say, so he kept his mouth shut.

"It's going to rain, let's all go inside." Briza suggested, as she sensed a weather change on it's way.

The two jedi followed Briza inside the skyscraper.

The entrance hall was an open area, with a balcony overlooking the center below. To the sides were two sets of stairs leading up to the balcony, in an half circle formation. The floor were made of obsidian like transparisteel, giving it a slight reflecting surfaces.

To their delight, Terrow came into view up on the balcony, "My Lady... my _former_ superior accepted your request immediately. I am now fully at your service." He politely informed and bowed low in respect.

Briza shone with happiness. "So they accepted my request."

"Who the _heck_ would dare to set themselves between a Sith lord and her demands." Terrow sarcastically chuckled a bit, as his siblings ascended the half circle stairs towards him.

Briza didn't speak, instead she gave Terrow a big hug.

"We are all one big happy family." Mathorn decided and clamped his arms around his new imperial siblings. "Come sis, join in the moment." He invited Tikala, but she seemed awfully worried.

"I've programmed the droid's not to noticed you, you will remain anonymous in this building." Terrow happily informed Tikala.

But there was a clear lack of reaction in their jedi sister and with a second glance, she actually looked kind of sick.

"Are you okay sis?" Mathorn couldn't remember the last time his little sister had seemed so over stressed.

Tikala looked up at her brother looking like she hadn't slept for days. "Is there a place where I can meditate in peace? I need to center myself."

"I can show you to a room, of your choosing." Briza suggested and waved for her to follow.

"I would like that." Tikala uttered in a low polite voice and followed.

Despite that all maintenance services were done by droids, the skyscraper still facilitated slave quarters as well as a number of guest rooms.

Tikala didn't feel like she had the energy to figure out what kind of room she wanted, so she took the first that looked somewhat cozy. "This one will do." she decided.

Briza shrugged. "If you change you mind later, let me know."

"Thank you Briza." Tikala replied softly and immediately began to center herself. It took hours before she eventually felt calm enough to enter a meditative trance on the gloomy planet.

* * *

In the meantime, Terrow was spraying the bruised Mathorn with kolto in the infirmary.

"So, what do you do for fun here on planet evil?" Mathorn asked out of curiosity and perhaps boredom.

Terrow was a bit unsure what his brother was getting at. "What do you mean?"

"You could show me around the city? You still owe me that drink." Mathorn suggested, clearly wanting a nightly stroll.

Terrow nodded, that could work. "Sure, I'll show you around our _city of evil_ "

"But if we are going anywhere, I suggest you clothe yourself in something more suitable for imperial standards" Terrow suggested, while taking up an imperial uniform similar to the one he wore. "This should be your size, and _yes,_ this is the best I could do on such short notice." He had to admit.

"An imperial uniform? Well, then I will just have to pretend I am undercover." Mathorn joked, though the gray uniform was everything, but his style.

"Please don't." Terrow said with a glint in his eye.

Mathorn changed out of his ruined smugglers clothes, and put on the imperial uniform. He looked at himself in the mirror and grinned. "I already _feel_ more evil."

"You are never going to let the evil thing go, are you?" Terrow asked despite already knowing the answer.

"It's the truth, so... no." Mathorn grinned. "Let's go. I want to see this planet."

"I see." Briza said, as she came into view through the door. She looked to Terrow and asked. "Where exactly will you be taking him?"

"I was planning on showing him the streets of Kaas city, and I know a good cantina, where we may have a few drinks." Terrow told truthfully, and added in a more careful tone. "I hope this is not against your wishes?"

"Did I not have a few things to take care of, I might have joined you, but as it is, I do." Briza smiled, while thinking to herself. _"This way, Mathorn will see, that as an imperial citizen he will have much more free will, than under the strict rules of the Jedi."_

"We will probably be back in time for dinner." Terrow said, as he and Mathorn went out on their sightseeing trip.

* * *

On the streets of Dromund Kaas.

Mathorn found the city both excitingly new and depressingly gloomy. It was like they had been trying to expel brightness itself.

"Here we are." Terrow announced and with a hand wave he introduced. "This is the Purple Gizka. The only bar that has sound insulated corners for private discussions." He whispered with a grin. "Oh, and before I forget, they know me as Dexten Hallen."

"Roger-over." Mathorn replied with grin of his own as they both entered the bar.

As they entered, an overweight human bartender in his sixties looked over the newcomers and smiled. "Dexten my man." He called in a warm voice.

"Hello Fealno, still alive as usual I see." Terrow joked as he neared the bar.

"Where have you been? I wondered if you had died?" The bartender asked.

"I've been busy here of late, new recruits to train." Terrow chatted the lie.

"So Dexten, what can I get you today" the bartender asked, in his old rusty voice

Terrow grinned as he replied "Today, two gizka specials on the rocks. I owe my comrade a proper drink."

"Sir, you have made a wise choice." The bartender bowed with and smile and began the mixturering. Not long after, the bartender served two huge blue-green drinks in hourglass shaped glasses.

Mathorn's eyes widened. _"Suddenly Dromund Kaas doesn't seem such a bad place to be after all."_ He thought to himself, as Terrow took a drink in each hand and handing him one. The scent was elevating.

"Come, I saw an empty corner over there." Terrow yelled and gestured for his older brother to follow.

"Right with you." Mathorn smiled jubilantly.

Behind the soundproof curtains, the two half brothers seated themselves. "Finally we are relatively secure." Terrow muttered relieved.

"So now I can sing the Anthem of the republic?" Mathorn joked with a grin.

"Feel free to try." Terrow encouraged with a smile.

Because he was in the mood, Mathorn began singing the first lines, but quickly forgot how it went, and lost interest in the joke, so instead he took a gulp of alcohol filed drink and began _talking._ "Yesterday was really crazy. First we try to kill each other and now we live under the same roof."

"I completely agree. These last twenty four hours have been eventful to say the least" Terrow laughed wholeheartedly. "do you know anything about how exactly we are related?" he asked in upbeat curiosity.

"We have the same father, you look a bit like him actually... I kinda expected that there might be more family members out somewhere in the galaxy, but never in the imperial territory. He fought _you_ in the battle for Balmorra." Mathorn elaborated the few facts he knew.

"It was obvious that it was on our fathers side that we shared our lineage, but it's mind boggling to think he was a jedi who fought against the empire. I... wonder how he meet my mother?" Terrow pondered to no avail. He knew better then to ask his mother directly, so he would need to use other ways get the information.

"He was married to my mother for half a decade, before taking off somewhere. I wonder where he is now?" Mathorn thought out loud.

"I have never seen our father, I only know what Briza and Mother have told me." Terrow replied in a low voice.

"Tikala too said she didn't have any recollection of Father, and very weak memories of our Mother." Mathorn told in a calm tone.

Both of them sat in silence for a moment, taking sips from their drinks from time to time, with the faint sound of electronic music being played behind the curtain.

To keep the conversation going Terrow asked. "So, what can you tell me of my half sister Tikala?"

"My dear little sister..." Mathorn mumbled at first, before beginning to speak clearly. "Well... I can tell you she is powerful... and it's difficult to convince her to do anything fun together." He sighed with a hint of frustrations in his voice. "She always tells me to control my emotions, my passion, learn to better myself and so on. LIKE THE COUNCIL WASN'T ALREADY PREACHING THAT BANTHA-POODOO TO ME ALL THE BLASTED TIME!" Mathorn exploded for a moment. "Ahm... Sorry, just felt like freaking out for some reason."

Terrow was a bit taken aback. He had asked about Tikala and instead he learned of Mathorn's temper.

"So why were you named Terrow? It sounds like the name of a darkside council member. BEHOLD! THE GRUESOME DARTH TERROW!" Mathorn acted out, with his arms out wide as he shouted the final line.

Terrow chuckled a bit before speaking. "I think that was what my mother wanted me to turn into. Even in her early years, Briza showed she was gifted. I guess Mother assumed I would be equally gifted."

"So is _sis_ _Briza_ an evil sith lord or is she just acting like one?" Mathorn asked out of the blue.

Terrow had to sigh, as he pondered how to reply. "Oh boy... Well she is not evil, nor can I really call it acting, as long as she controls her own powerbase. Well neither really."

"Really! No evil deeds?" Mathorn pushed for more info.

Terrow thought for a moment. "I am not aware of any malicious deeds. Unlike other sith lords in her position, she neither torture for pleasure, nor punish unreasonably... If she was evil, she wouldn't have saved me the countless times I was near death on Korriban."

"She hasn't killed any republic soldiers or jedi?" Mathorn pushed on.

Terrow was beginning to find this conversation daunting. "She has properly killed as many Republic troops as you have killed Imperial troops."

"Fair enough." Mathorn replied satisfied, and changed to his prefered subject. "When I visited this Lord Ultra Sith, I saw this smoking hot sith lady. She was so hot that even our sister seemed flavorless. Don't get me wrong, Briza is hot... but this sexy sith just had the perfect body, her cheek bones looked so smooth and by the force her chest looked amazing." He kept on describing the sith lady for sometime.

Terrow was beginning to laugh, fully aware that his own intoxication level was getting a bit too high to be reasonable at this point. _"What an older brother I have found."_ He mumbled inaudible.

"So do you know who this super sexy sith is?" Mathorn wanted to know.

"Sorry, I don't know who you are speaking of, few pureblood sith matches the criteria you're describing." Terrow replied coolly.

"I don't know the name, but sis Briza seemed to know her well." Mathorn remembered the way the females had spoken to each other.

That rang a bell in Terrow's mind. "I believe it's one of Briza's long time allies from Korriban. Her name is Deedrah Nei'elsefan and she even saved me once. In exchange, I researched the meanings of a few hieroglyphs for her... yes she was beautiful, and likely still is today..." He told what he remembered. "But no, aside from a few encounters with Briza next to me, I know very little."

"Are you good at attracting girls?" Mathorn asked, clearly fishing for something.

Terrow kinda expected this question to come up at some point. "Through me carrier as an agent, I have learned how to seduce anyone, no matter the race or sex... But lady Deedrah is too high a star to consider."

"Let's go out and catch us a few hot Imp ladies." Mathorn eagerly suggested.

Fully knowing that he had to be the responsible one, Terrow declined quickly and rose. "No, I suggest we go back to our Sisters compound, we still have a job to do."

"That's not fun." Mathorn mumbled a bit irritated, but regardless he rose as well and followed his younger brother.

* * *

Briza's skyscraper.

After four hours of mediation, which only partially replenishing her energy, Tikala decided that it was time to call her superiors and report.

Tikala found Briza sitting on a black couch watching holonews. As she moved closer, Briza looked over at her. "I hope you will allow me to inform the jedi council, that Mathorn and I are both fine."

"Use the comm channel when you want, just remember _the agreement_." Briza replied in a firm tone.

"I will only report of Mathorn and myself." Tikala replied, remembering the deal they made.

"Good." Briza replied satisfied with the answer, and remembering the conversation from earlier she added. "Oh and Terrow took Mathorn on a tour of the city."

This caught Tikala off guard, not so much their departure for sightseeing, but that she didn't sense them leaving at all. _"This planet is weakening me, I need to get use to it fast!"_

Briza could easily tell that her new sister was still very much weakened. "I hope you will be ready when our next lead presents itself."

"So do I." Tikala replied slowly, no reason to hide the fact.

Briza sighed. To her, it was still off-putting to see her sister looking so ill and weak. "I still don't get how you could defeat two of my subordinates and out fence me... twice."

"In our battle, I could sense what you were doing and what you would do." Tikala explained as a matter of fact "At the moment, I would be capable of neither."

Briza turned off the holovid and looked puzzled at the jedi before her. "What? You knew my movements and tactics... Before I did?!"

Tikala sat down opposite her sister and began explaining it fouther. "It was more like I could feel your momentum and rhythm, like you were another part of me."

"You... see me as part of you?!" Briza was mind boggled, it both made _some_ sense... and yet it made her even _more_ perplexed.

"Like the force streams through both of us in the same stream." Tikala tried to unraveled the confusion.

Briza shook her head in confusion. "You are not making much sense. Your jedi riddles lack common understanding."

"I'm sorry, I don't know how to explain it any better. For me, seeing the force flowing around everything is natural." Tikala apologized for her lack of common reference.

Briza sighed in resignation. "Talk to your superiors, we can discuss this later." And turned on the holovid again, she was too tired to listen to jedi teachings at the moment.

Tikala knew she had been dismissed, so she walked through the hall to the comm station and used her datapad to look up the transmission code. She typed in the code and began an encrypted comm transmission to a relay station in the midrim, before confirming the code and relaying it to Typhon. Whereafter she waited a few minutes before her holotransmission was accepted. "This is jedi knight Tikala Xastra, do anyone copy?"

"My goodness, you're alive... Are you well?" Master Bela Kiwiiks asked audibly worried.

"I am fine master. Mathorn and I live with friendly people on Drumond kaas, as long as we are here, we need not worry." Tikala assured the master in a calm voice.

"That's a relief to hear. Have you found any leads regarding master Buz's abduction?" Bela asked, hoping for further good news.

Tikala shook her head dismissively "No, I was hoping that there would have been some news on the datapad Jonathan escaped with."

"SIS is decrypting the data as we speak, and yes he is fine. He is on his way back to Tython," Master Kiwiiks said in a calming voice.

Tikala began reporting what they had come to know and why she believe this was guided by the force, without mentioning her half imperial siblings, only referring to them as friendly imperials.

"I trust that you know what you are doing, but please be extremely careful, you will be loved by few on Dromund Kaas." Bela warned with extreme causation. "I pray Mathorn doesn't falter to the dark side."

"I swear, I will do what I can to keep him in the light." Tikala promised from the bottom of her heart.

"And please stay in touch, so we can inform you of any new we may uncover." Bela Kiwiiks encouraged in a soft voice.

"I will report back when we know more." Tikala assured her superior.

Bela smiled before finally saying. "May the force be with you and your brother."

"May the force be with you too Master Kiwiiks." Tikala replied and followed with a small bow before disconnecting and flickering out.


	16. Episode 3 Together in the shadows Part 3

KAAS CITY MARKET: late evening

As they traveled back to Briza's compound, not entirely sober, they came across several markets that sold everything from fancy gadgets to exotic foods. Mathorn wanted to buy some orange spiky fruits to eat on the way, as he was getting rather hungry. "They look tasty, lets go get a few."

Terrow shook his head. "Those are expensive. I think it would be smarter to go back to the skyscraper instead. I can with high accuracy say that the food served there, is better than what we can buy here." he pointed out.

"You know best." Mathorn replied in defeat, but as they continued through the market he noticed the slave area and stopped.

Terrow had gotten used to the daily slave trade that thrived in the empire and hadn't thought to much about it. Had it not been for his own traumatic experience, he might even have thought it a necessary evil. But he had also studied enough of republic history, to know that Mathorn _most likely_ held a very ill view of slave trade. "Come Mathorn, lets go a different route, this part of the market can be an ugly site at times." He tried to persuade his brother to follow, but Mathorn didn't listen.

Mathorn had spotted the same Human filth from the space port earlier. The large bearded slaver was using his slaves to pack down the grandstand. For reasons unknown, the slaver whipped a beautiful young blue female twi'lek across one of her head tails. For a moment Mathorn forgot everything else, as pure hatred began building up inside him, stemming from the knowledge of how sensitive their head tails could be. With long steps he walked towards the slaver with raw determination, not listing to Terrow who was warning him of how very wrong this could go.

When the slaver finally noticed the tall Zabrak in an imperial uniform, he was steering into two eyes burning with rage. Startled, he tried to speak. "Hey! I have payed for the use of this area today, I still have an hour to go."

"You! Don't hurt her!" Mathorn spat the demand. Now that he was closer, he could see the injures that had been inflicted on the two dozen of Twi'leks the slaver had in captivity. Everything from deep scars, to fresh bleeding wounds and some of the Twi'lek even looked to have been tortured at one point or another.

"They are my property, I use them the way I see fit." The slaver spat in return. He despised zabraks. That they allowed such a lesser specie into the imperial military was distasteful to him.

For Mathorn this was too much. There was only one thing on his mind, to remove this evil standing right in front of him. Before the thought of attack had entered his mind, the Human who had just stood in front of him was already being crushed by the pressure of Mathorn's sheer wrath.

The slaver stared wide eyed in horror, as not only was his windpipe being choked, but every muscle and even his bones were slowly being ripped apart.

The Twi'leks watched in horror as Mathorn intensified his force pressure on their owner and master, which changed color from the usual pink to a dark purple. They looked away when they heard bones crack in the now disfigured Human. The undoubtedly dead master, who was bleeding from every inch of his body, was torn apart from the inside out.

Terrow went from viewing his new found brother as a good and friendly being, to viewing this… murderous family member with fear. As the Human corpse fell lifeless to the ground, quickly making a pool of blood beneath, Terrow thought to himself _"You are no jedi."_ What had just happened, goes against everything he had learned about the jedi ways and culture.

But after a minute, Terrow gathered the courage to ask the obvious question. "So... what are you going to do with your new _slave-herd_?"

"Ahm..." Mathorn mumbled coming out of the blood haze. He looked at the two dozen Twi'leks who stared back at him, horrified and in awe. After what seem to take _forever_ , an idea struck him. "Let's take them with us back home." He spoke eagerly.

Terrow sighed and began explaining the problem at hand. "I'm not so _sure_ , Briza would approve of your slave liberating conquest, especially since it would most likely come back to haunt her in the end."

"We can't just dump them somewhere. Let's take them back, there should be enough room for all of us!" Mathorn suggested determined.

"This won't end well." Terrow muttered in resignation, as he walked over to Twi'lek and spoke with a raised voice in huttese. "Slaves, we are your new masters. You are all being transferred, carry what belongings you may have, you are all to follow us in five minutes."

The twi'leks imitatively gathered what they could carry, as well as helped their injured friends get on their feet.

Mathorn was puzzled. He had heard huttese being spoken before, but it sounded fun when his little brother spoke it. "What did you say to them?" He wanted to know.

"I told them suit up and follow us." Terrow replied half lying. He knew Mathorn wouldn't like the way he had address the twi'leks, but they wouldn't understand a polite request.

Soon after, all twenty-six Twi'leks were ready to travel. Terrow proceeded to order them to follow.

With Mathorn in the lead, they began the march back towards the skyscraper. It didn't take long before he decided to sing a favorite song of his.

Although his brother was in a good mood, Terrow found all this _too_ bizarre to feel anything but surreality. They had just broken at least two laws, and now the culprit was walking home singing in blissful happiness. Were they not under the command of the exact dark lord with jurisdiction of law and order on this planet, they would have been imprisoned or executed for killing a civilian and disturbing the peace, as well as the mess they made in the slave marked.

As the group traveled through the city, people just looked on in awe, not so much at the group of slaves, as at the terribly singing zabrak in front, who apparently felt the need to show his joyfulness to everyone.

After a short while, they reached the Briza's compounded. Mathorn was still partly intoxicated as he entered the building, so when he saw no one but droids, he shouted. "BRIZA, WE _ARE_ HO-OME."

"Welcome home my lord." The servant droid politely replied, as its photoreceptors scanned the remainder of the group. "If I may ask... why-"

"You may not ask." Mathorn cut it off, as Terrow and the rest of his slave group entered.

Briza came to the balcony that overlooked the entrance hall and was about to demand an explanation as to why he had just shouted her name like a little boy, but the sight of the small horde of Twi'leks in her hallway, made her eyes widen.

"I tried to stop him, but... He wouldn't listen." Terrow apologize in advance.

To say Briza was perplex, would be right on the mark. First she thought they had been out buying slaves, but judging from Terrow's expression and the fact that they _most_ _likely_ did not have even remotely enough credits for so many slaves, it took her only a split second to realize what the most likely scenario was. "No... no, no, no-no, _no._ " she uttered in frustration.

"Well... you could always sell the droids." Mathorn suggested with an very _unsure_ smile on his lips. "Please let them stay." He pleaded.

Tikala came to see what had disturbed the peace, she too was puzzled when she noticed the Twi'leks with slave collars around their necks.

"Shut up, just, shut up!" Briza yelled angrily, where after she looked to her other brother. "Terrow, you will be the slave master, accommodate them in the slave quarter."

"Yes my lord." Terrow bowed and began to guide them to where he thought they could stay for the time being.

"If I may, will you allow me to help with the Twi'leks?" Tikala asked for the sake of the slaves in question, as she were only able to see a single one of them that seemed unharmed.

"Do as you wish." Briza allowed without much thought and turned her attention back to Mathorn with a cold gaze. "You and I, are going find out how bad this mess of yours is, now!" she demanded firmly of him.

"Yes my... lord." Mathorn shuttered as the adrenaline fought the alcohol in his system. He was beginning to sense that his actions could be much more costly then he had first realized and barely noticed Tikala hurryingly past him to help the slave group.

It didn't take long before the news of Mathorns _slave-jacking_ could be read on the imperial central datacore, accompanied by a recorded holovid scene, where he and Terrow came marching through the streets, with Mathorn singing to his heart's content. "So... how much trouble am I in?" Mathorn asked nervously.

"Well we will see, now won't we..." Briza replied coldly with discontent in her voice.

And as Briza and Mathorn searched the central datacore news of more info on her apprentice slave adoption, she received a message from Deedrah. "I need to talk with you, I'll be there shortly. It's very important!"

Mathorns eyes widened. "Deedrah? The hot sith you talked to when we visited the sith overlord?" He hoped dearly.

Briza looked over at her tan colored brother with a look of disdain. "Yes. My friend is coming here. Now we will see how much damage, you have done!"

"I get it, slave liberation is _bad_ on planet evil." Mathorn muttered in irritation and added with a sigh of resignations "I'll tell Tikala to lay extra low for the time being."

Briza nodded approvingly, with a small smile appeared on her lips as she thought. _"Maybe there is hope for him after all."_

Not long after the female pureblood entered the building. "Greetings mistress Nei'elsefan." One of the protocol droids greeted her in the typically well modulated voice. "Can I take you cloak, mistress?"

"You may." Deedrah replied with an aristocratic demeanor and handed the droid her dark velvet cloak.

"Welcome my old friend." Briza said in a inviting tone, as she descended the stairs.

"Likewise lord Briza. And allow me to personally congratulate you, on acquiring your former masters powerbase. Quite the reward." Deedrah replied with a smile and made a small curtsy.

"Thank you lord Deedrah." Briza said with humility in her voice. "Come, I've have prepared a conference room." Gesturing for her guest to follow.

Deedrah politely followed, her host to a room on the second floor.

In a large dimly lit office they sat down opposite each other, with only a thine table between them. Deedrah unraveled her datapad and began to speak on the subject at hand.

"Lord Briza, as you are most likely aware, your apprentice have slain a slave merchant. As it stands now, the Office of Law and Order will not be taking any actions against you, nor will any compensation be charged, as long as the incident isn't repeated." Deedrah informed in a formal but relaxed tone.

"I appreciate that." Briza muttered thankfully, as she wondered what to do with her new slaves? But that was a problem for later.

"We have done a background check on Mathorn Xastra. He has been registered as a combatant in battles all over the midrim. One such battle of note was the siege on Alderaan's capital Aldrea, which he was instrumental in breaking. We are likewise aware of the dozens of sith lords killed by his hand. He is extremely reckless, as you are no doubt aware of already. He has gone against the jedi councils wishes on multiple occasions. He is not a rogue jedi, but a renegade jedi, the data we have collected on him confirmed this." Deedrah said disclosing all her findings. She made long pause before continuing. "I wondered why the jedi decided to train him. After digging in his background, it turns out that he has a sister. She was very difficult to get any real data on, like a closely guarded secret, but what I could piece together is this. She is a jedi shadow, one of the fastest and stealthiest force users recorded in republic history."

Briza's first instinct was to look surprised and serious, but afraid her _friend_ would see through her ruse, she decided it better to reveal a few tiny pieces of information on her half sister. "Her name is Tikala Xastra. Mathorn already told me what little he knows of her. She is a skilled infiltrator and constantly assigned to covert missions on the jedi council's behalf. I am already taking precautions, should we encounter this sister of his." Briza lied with some truth speckled in between, believing a distorted version of the truth would be an easier sell, than a pretended denial of any knowledge on the subject. _"Or I could just be her half sister and make a beneficial deal for the both of us."_ She though, smiling in her mind at the reality of things.

"Good, I really hope you can handle this sister of his, should you ever meet." Deedrah smiled, accepting the info as the truth... but something in Briza's tone was nagging at her consciousness.

"I Would like it, if you could stay and dine with us?" Briza offered her hospitality, taking a calculated risk.

Deedrah did have some unfinished work at her office desk, but when would she get an excuse to visit again? "I gladly accept. To be honest, I did take advantage of the opportunity to visit you in your new home."

"Very well, I will tell my servants to set the table for three." Briza smiled widely, as she rose and exited the conference room.

While Deedrah began to read up on a crime scene that had just happened the same evening.

A few stories down Mathorn noticed his older half sister approaching. "So... am I to be crucified tomorrow?" He joked and smiled with uncertainty written all over his face.

Briza shook her head. "No, you are not to be executed. But you will have to stay _here,_ unless I tell you otherwise." She declared firmly.

"Great, first day on Drumond kaas... and already grounded." Mathorn cursed his luck, clearly grumpy.

"Our guest Deedrah will be dining with us today." Briza told him off handed, and as soon as she had finished the sentence, she noticed a change in Mathorn's mood, and quickly added in a firm voice. "I want you to be on your _BEST_ behavior. You need to show that you have understood your error!"

"Yes ma-am." Mathorn replied, without being completely able to conceal how excited he was about dining with the only sith beauty he had ever seen and asked as an afterthought. "Are the others also joining us?"

"No. This is a dinner for high ranking sith only." Briza stated and began elaborating. "Everything in the empire is determined by rank in our society. If you hadn't been my apprentice and instead just a normal citizen, you would have been publicly executed for your crimes."

"Okay... at least I now know I am high ranking." Mathorn muttered with a half baked smile, publicly executed wasn't his idea of a job well done.

"See to it, that you stay that way." Briza warned in a threatening tone.

"Yes my lady, I understand." Mathorn muttered a bit annoyed. He knew why she was warning him so sharply, but it just felt like an insult.

"Now come, we have a guest waiting for us." Briza commanded in a softer tone.

In the dining hall, service droids were setting the black transparisteel table, which looked like it was mimicking the rest of the skyscraper.

Calming music were playing to smoothen the atmosphere and glinting red flowers were placed decoratively, evenly spaced, on the table.

The dinner was mostly made out of huge hollow yellow fruits, with meat from the native wildlife stuffed inside. Mathorn remembered having seen those fruits in the marketplace earlier, and that Terrow talked him out of getting one.

"Please. Take a seat." Briza invitingly gestured with a wave of her hand.

Mindful of what his older sister had said, Mathorn tried not to stare at Deedrah, and only occasionally glanced her way.

"So, have you thought about selling your new slaves?" Deedrah suggested as they ate. She knew plenty of places were the zabraks might get a good price for the bunch.

"You could also sell the droids..." Mathorn suggested bluntly, the look on the female's faces indicated he was out voted though. "Just a suggestion." He excused himself.

"I've ordered my new agent to find out if they are worth something to me." Briza replied, thinking to herself. _"...as well as the 'infamous' jedi shadow."_

Again Deedrah had an instinctive feeling that _something_ was not completely as it seemed.

"If I may ask, how did you come to work for Darth Imperious?" Briza asked, she had wanted to know ever since she had been called by her friend yesterday.

"Well I was simply chosen to serve Darth Mortis, and later reassigned to work as an adviser to Darth Imperious." Deedrah explained chipperly. "I'm glad you also became a servant to Darth Mortis, so I'll have more excuses to visit you." She smiled mischievously.

"Except for Darth Vowrawn, I don't think I could have gotten a more pleasant high lord to serve, than Darth Imperious." Briza wholeheartedly agreed.

Mathorn was mute the entire time, as he pondered what Jonathan would say, if he knew what things he had done this day.

"May I?" Deedrah playfully asked, grinning in anticipation.

It took a moment to register what the sith ment, but Briza grinned too as she replied in a casual tone. "Sure, they are all yours."

Deedrah took one of blood red flowers and ate it raw.

"Brings back memories, doesn't it?" Briza chuckled a little, as she thought back on one of the more jolly times on Korriban. She and Deedrah had stolen a crate of flowers, only then realizing that they had way too many flowers to decorate with, and they knew, they would wither before they could be of use, so for some reason they had decided to taste them. Some of them had been tasty enough that they had used them as snacks the following days, especially Deedrah found the texture delightful, not so much the taste.

Deedrah nodded smiling while chewing on the petals.

Mathorn raised an eyebrow. "Do you usually eat the decorations here in the empire?"

"No, they aren't normally meant for eating. I just like chewing on them, such fine texture." Deedrah smiled fondly.

Mathorn was about to comment on the sexiness of her attitude, but again remembered to shut up for now. He was starting to feel tiredness creep up on him and began to have a hard time thinking completely straight.

Now that the apprentice of her friend seemed mellow, Deedrah decided she would probe him a little. "I've heard you have a sister in the jedi order."

Mathorn was a bit taken aback. _"Play it cool! Play it cool!"_ He quickly thought to himself. "Hm... yeah, I have a sister back in the republic, unfortunately she couldn't be here today... you know, red isn't her color." He tried to joke his way out of this _very_ unconformable conversation.

"That _is_ unfortunately. I believe she could be an excellent asset to your cause." Deedrah continued for own amusement. "Wouldn't you believe so?"

In the past, Briza had always found it funny when Deedrah began unraveling something, in this case she began to fear that her pureblood friend was trying to persuade Mathorn to reveal something on Tikala and decided to redirect the focus. "Now that you mention family, I have a confession to make-"

Deedrah turned back to look at Briza, with a very puzzled expression on her face.

Briza took a deep breath. "Remember my brother, the one who died. Well he was actually never killed. I smuggled him away, and I just had him transfered to my personal staff."

"Is that true?!" Deedrah responded in sudden surprise. "Can I see him?" She politely requested.

Briza waved at one of the droids, it bowed and walked away.

Mathorn wondered to himself, if that was smart. _"Briza... I thought our family were supposed to be secret?!"_

A moment past and Terrow entered the dining hall with a slight feeling of uncertainty. Seeing Deedrah again in real life was kinda overwhelming. _"I get why Mathorn couldn't shut up about her."_ He thought while trying to remain calm and collected.

"Look how grown up you are." Deedrah uttered in surprise. Now that she thought about it, it made sense that Briza never had seemed angry or hateful over the loss of her brother.

Terrow smiled with a hint of uncertainty when he spoke. "It's an honor to speak with you again, miss Nei'elsefan. I hope you understand why I had to flee Korriban, I was never meant to be a sith acolyte."

Deedrah nodded in agreement. She turned to look over at Briza and spoke openly with glee. "Thank you for revealing this to me. I promise this secret will remain between us present in this room."

A collective sigh of relief could be heard from the Zabraks. Mathorn was just happy that only Tikala had to be kept secret.

But one thing that hit Deedrah, as she watched them all sigh in relief, was the fact that the renegade jedi had the _exact_ same green eyes as Terrow... _actually_ all three Zabrak had those same emerald green eyes.

The rest of the evening went with Briza and Terrow each telling their story. Briza telling of how she became the apprentice of Darth Veness, Terrow telling how he was smuggled to his mother's, where they had changed his identity, and how he later was enlisted as an imperial agent.

"I think it's time for me to retire." Deedrah announced after midnight. "It has been a pleasure visiting you."

Briza was about to respond in kind, but Mathorn was quick to put in a grinning remark."And you have been _a pleasure_ to look at."

" _Boys..."_ Deedrah thought to herself, but ignored the comment.

Briza too ignored the comment from the bold half brother, responding with a proper and polite reply. "I'm pleased to hear you enjoyed our company."

Deedrah noticed one of the droids coming over with her cloak. "I'll keep in touch." She exited the skyscraper, with her own speeder parked right outside for easy access. Soon after she flew out into the city night.

"Mathorn! Remember to _behave_!" Briza glared irritatedly at her impolite brother.

"What! I gave her a compliment, what's wrong with that?" Mathorn complained about the injustice he faced.

"I am going to bed. I will teach you proper manners tomorrow." Briza muttered with a tired expression.

"Nighty night sis." Mathorn replied in an off handed manner, realized he was getting overtired.

Briza didn't reply, not even when Terrow wished her a pleasant night. When she entered her private quarters, she removed her clothes and threw herself on the bed, exhaustion overwhelming her and making her powerless against the rush of memories flowing over her. "These last days have been too chaotic and unpredictable." She mumbled to herself before sleep won her over.


	17. Episode 4 The search: Part 1

**STAR WARS**

 **THE CRIMSON BLIGHT**

Episode 4: The search

OUTER RIM: Tingel arm

The Chiss captain asked again, the confusion plainly visible on his face. "Are you sure these new coordinates are accurate?"

Qaton shrugged his shoulder. "The Coordinates was received on the right frequency."

The Bounty hunters on Okan's ship had been told to wait out on the edges of the tingle arm, until they received the coordinates on where to bring their captive Jedi master. But now that they had received the coordinates, they pointed to somewhere in uncharted space, which was believed to be series of dangerous asteroid belts.

"This just doesn't sit right with me." Okan said. The two main reasons why he had agreed to this mission in the first place was that, the pay would come quickly and in considerable quantity, and that the burden of keeping a jedi subdued quickly would be lifted from their shoulders and on to someone else's. The not inconsiderable part about it all being over and done with a flic of a switch, was definitely not the case.

Zugi, the female zabrak, rose and gave them a stern look of intimidation. "What are we waiting for! If that is the drop off point, I suggest we get there now!"

"I'm pretty sure, we all are tired of waiting. We could always drop out of hyperspace a few parsecs before our destination, just in case." Qaton suggested with a snie smile.

Okan looked at them all, sighed and said in heavy tone. "If you are all sure that this info is accurate, then I will set the course now."

* * *

Two hours later, they re-emerged from hyperspace to find a small solar system in their front viewpoint. Okan checked the navi computer. Apparently the coordinates pointed to a small planet orbiting a red dwarf star.

"Yo captain, is there any sign of life out here?" Qaton asked curiously, as he entered the cockpit.

"I've located where we are suppose to go, wake the others." Okan replied, and pulled the lever to accelerate his spacecraft.

A few minutes later the ship landed on the mountainous world, illuminated by the dwarf star, which bathed the planet in a ominous red glow. The surface seemed mostly barren, except for a few curled up tree like plants.

As soon as Okan stepped foot on the planet, he felt a cold feeling rise up in him, simultaneously one of his mental protections implants began to get rather hot, showing signs of a stressful workload. "This planet is sick... I won't stay here longer than absolutely necessary."

He shared a glance with Zugi, she nodded in return to signal that she noticed the abnormality too.

Two human women in uniforms of the typical Tenkan colors of green and orange approached them. "Bring the jedi, our client is waiting." They commanded in unison.

"One jedi coming up." Qaton replied in an enthusiastically loud voice, as Helgu came down the ramp pushing a hover lifter, carried the incapacitated Kel'dorian jedi master, in front of him. Qaton himself carrying the black artifact that kept the jedi in check.

Zak looked carefully around at the red mountains surrounding the landing area as he followed the group onto the planet.

Zugi too began to feel a chill, not only did the two women speak like they were in a trance of a sort, but Qaton's voice seemed unusually faint in her mind.

Zak spotted something that looked something like a mutated mynoc "...Wha-at... is... tha-at!" he shuttered.

"Something that will _devour_ your flesh!" Helgu made a wide grin as he deliberately tried to scare the Twi'lek for his own amusement.

At first Zak stood his ground and looked to overcome his fear of this being, but this only lasted until he spotted countless of the winged creatures. "I'll..." but in his fright, he didn't even finish sentence, before franticly fleeing back on to the ship.

Helgu laughed wickedly, as the pink Twi'lek ran back the way he had come from. "Weakling." He smirked with a sinister smile.

Qaton chuckled at the display. "Afraid of a few indigenous creatures."

The laugher of his teammates was sending a faint echo through Okan's mind, _"Maybe Zak, in reality, has the better idea of going back."_

The two women in front led them from a narrow pathway and into a cave. To Okan, the trip to their destination felt like a lifetime, while in actuality, only a few minutes had past since they landed.

They entered a cave in the side of one of the red mountains and started down a corridor lit only by purple flames burning from the evenly spaced stone brazziers. At the end of the corridor, was a large purple lit room, filled with various exotic artifacts, completely alien to the visiting bounty hunters.

A tall being clad in a black cloak stood waiting as they approached with the jedi. A cold shadow crept over all of them, Okan began to feel really ill, as a barely audible voice spoke in his head in an echoing dry tone. "Relax... soon you will be rewarded and all your fears will be a thing of the past."

Okan felt like he was falling asleep from pure fatigue, until the mental protection chip in his brain gave him a sudden, painful jolt. It snapped him back to full concisioness. He turned around and kicked the adrenalin enhancing feature of his suite into overdrive, and as he sprinted back towards the ship as fast as he could, he noticed Zugi above him, flying away an orange flame tongue spouting from her jetpack.

Qaton looked confused at his comrades suddenly fleeing. "What are you doing! Don't you want the reward? Well... more for the rest of us." He smiled at Helgu, who mimicked the smile in return.

The dark hooded figure looked at the two newcomers, bid them welcome in a very dry voice. "Welcome, bounty hunters. I see you have brought what I wanted, and in excellent condition. As agreed upon, I have the credits you wanted right here."

"We don't need a reward." Qaton replied chipper and added _very_ enthusiastically. "We will be happy just to serve you, no matter what your wish may be."

"Sure thing, credits are not our desirer, use us anyway you want." Helgu commented eagerly, with an unusual faintness in his otherwise deep voice.

"Very well." The dark hooded figure replied in his dusty dry voice. "I'll make good use of you two."

* * *

Back at the ship, Zak was hiding in a corner, fighting the urge to take the ship and fly away on his own. He nearly had a heart attack, when someone lowered the landing ramp, and aimed a blaster pistol at his two comrades that had just returned.

"It feels like my brain is about to explode!" Okan cried out in agony, as he collapsed on the floor.

Zugi yanked her helmet off and threw it against one of the walls. "Make it STOP!" She cried and crashed to the floor, feeling the neural chip in her brain, burning like a firestorm of pain, her fingers tearing at the implant beneath the skin.

"Zak... get us out of here!" Okan shouted in desperation.

Luckily, the terrorfied Twi'lek knew just enough of the ships systems to get the engines roaring and take off from this nightmare of a planet.

Both Okan and Zugi felt like their skulls would crack at any moment from the extremely loud old ship engines, but at least it meant that they were _finally_ safe, from whatever _that_ being had been doing to them.

Unfortunately, the noise didn't stop there, as blaster cannons from small Tengen ships were starting to fire on them. "We are going to die!" Zak cried as he tried to outmaneuver the smaller space crafts.

With the last ounce of his strength, Okan crawled his way to the cockpit. "Zak! Configure the navi computer, the hull will hold long enough."

Zak punched in the coordinates for a random planet faraway, followed by a quick pull of the lever engaging the hyperdrive. The viewport was filled with stars, as the ship jumped to lightspeed.

Everyone collapsed in a seat or on the floor - they had made it out alive.

* * *

Drummond Kass: Brisa's skyscraper

Terrow was seated in his new office with a cup of caf on his desk. Since early this morning, he had been up researching the failed mission, which had led to the union with their republic siblings. He stretch his arms and fingers for a brief moment, before returning to the task at hand. For several hours, he had been trying to link suitable suspects to the stations take over and in the end, its destruction. One link was to the bounty hunter guild of the Tenkan Syndicate. Imperial agents already in place, spying on the government of Ord Canfre, had been re-tasked to monitor all syndicate activities, but so far nothing had turned up.

The day before, he and Tikala had set up a slave quarter, for what she called the unfortunate ones. She had openly told him how much she disliked slavery and that she would never refer to them as such. She even specified that she would not tolerate any mistreatment of these poor Twi'leks, to which he had replied that he personally wouldn't harm them in anyway whatsoever, but he couldn't say for sure what Briza would do. Tikala had simply replied that she would defend the Twi'leks in such a case. Of course he already knew what Mathorn would do in the case of mistreatment, and he had mentioned what their brother had done to the Twi'lek's former master, giving Tikala a bit of a shock.

Since Terrow and Tikala were put in charge of the... _former_ slaves, they had decided to teach them some basic skills. Having been fairly young when they had been forced into slavery, none of the Twi'leks had received any basic education, but Terrow had noticed a few of them, who had seemed smart enough to become descent cooks, mechanics and even pilots.

In order to save time, and not bare the burden of teaching personally, he had programmed one of the droids to act as a teacher, by using software from the republic schooling system's central datacore.

And now, he sat and waited for an encrypted report from the republic's strategic information service or SIS for short, so he could get Tikala to verify it and decrypt it, in the hopes of narrowing down their search for the bounty hunters who was responsible for the theft of an imperial dreadnought as well as the kidnapping of a jedi master.

* * *

Briza lay on her bed pondering the words of her younger sister. _"...like you are another part of me."_ It was still early, and the sky was dark as night outside. _"Could I do something similar? Let me see."_ She sat up, began to concentrate and reached out with the force. She sensed Mathorn sleeping a few levels below, and more faintly Terrow in a state of concentration, but she was only able to make out bits and pieces of the information he was processing. This wasn't all though, there was another being, like a shadowy cocoon. After a moment, it was as if it accepted her and invited her to enter the cocoon.

* * *

Tikala was meditating, as she had been doing the entire night. Still in a trance like state, she sensed someone dark, but at the same time very familiar, trying to mentally connect with her through the force. She smiled, as she let her older sister enter her inner self.

* * *

Briza was surrounded by what seemed to be a world of intensive bright light, as if she had just entered a sun. It felt so warm and peaceful, but the intensity of the light power felt extremely overwhelming. It was too much for her. She lost her concentration and she was once again back in her room. She felt weak, vulnerable and shattered. That had been very unlike anything she had ever experienced before. It had been so alien, so calm and harmonious, like a shining world of pure light. She had to lay down for a moment to regain her strength. "Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion I gain strength." she mumbled to herself, but her own words sounded hollow to her, like the meaning had been stripped away.

* * *

Tikala sensed the darkside gathering in her sister, but also waning again shortly after. _"I wonder how powerful a hold the darkside have over you, my sister."_ Tikala pondered in silence. The predominant feeling she got, was a bundle of chaotic desires clustered inside her sister. She could feel the strong attachment Briza felt towards everyone she considered _her_ family.

She entered her trance state again, but it didn't take long before another interference occurred. This time in the form of a knock on her door. With a small hand wave, the door slit to the side. "Please come in." She politely invited and opened her eyes to see Terrow standing on the other side.

"Good morning Tikala, I hope you have slept... meditated well." Terrow corrected himself in a polite manner.

Tikala smiled up at him as she rose from her cross legged position. "Yes I have thank you. I have started to get use to your home worlds atmosphere."

"That's good to hear." Terrow smiled in return, but then, changing to a more serious expression, he continued. "I've just received an encrypted message from the republic."

Tikala guessed that was the case and the reason for her little brothers visit. "I will be with in a minute."

"I'll give you space." Terrow replied and left the room to prepare the system for the decryption process.

* * *

Briza felt she had laid down long enough and got out of bed. She stretched her body and opened the door to the walk in closet to pick something suitable to wear for the day. She chose a scarlet colored set, made from the softest velvet available in imperial space. When she had dressed, she wandered about in her home for some time. It was still hard to believe, that no more than few days ago, it had all belonged to her deceased master, a Darth of high stature and that she had just been an apprentice. She looked around to see if anyone else was up yet, and found Terrow and Tikala with their full attention concentrated on a monitor, apparently displaying some very imported text.

"Good morning you two." Briza greeted them as she moved in closer to see what the fuss was about.

Tikala turned her head and replied with a greeting of her own. "Good morning sister Briza."

"Good morning my lord." Terrow to replied politely, but didn't take his eyes of the monitor. "We have received some important files from the republic, detailing every ship docked on the Dathomirian space-station before its destruction. We are looking through it now."

"I assume the acquisition of these files have something to do with _our_ contacts on the jedi counsel?" Briza guessed, as she looked at the displayed content, to get a sense of the work they were doing.

"That is correct. We received these files from the SIS, the same files the third member of our group managed download from the space-stations datacore." Tikala chipperly informed with a smile.

"I see." Briza replied. She would have asked Tikala if she would be her sparring partner for her morning exercise, but the circumstances dictated otherwise, so she decided to check if her next best option was available.

* * *

Briza knocked on the door to Mathorns room and waited for a second, when no one answered and only snoring could be heard, she just pressed a button, making the door slide to the side. Inside, Mathorn was still asleep in his bed. "Wake up!" She uttered firmly, but when that didn't seem to help ether, she violently slammed her left fist into his chest.

Mathorn awoke when he felt danger right above him, but as he even opened his eyes someone or something strong, slammed all the air out of him. Stunned, confused and shocked, he wailed various insults at his older sister, but the lack of air made his attempt at speech barely audible.

"You are TOO easy to assassinate with these sloppy reflexes. Considered this your punishment, and GET UP! You and I are going to be sparring _now!_ " Briza demanded and marched out of the small sleeping chamber.

"Note to self... meditate, not sleep, or big sis will kill me." Mathorn mumbled to himself as he got dressed, the pain already subsiding.

As Mathorn walked around, trying to find the turbo lift, he too notice his younger siblings talking and pointing. "Good morning siblings of awesomeness"

Tikala turned around and with a very serious look on her face stated. "Mathorn! We need to discuss your aggressive feelings."

"Now? I don't think big sis wants to wait for me." Mathorn replied in an off handed manner, trying to avoid another lectures he didn't want.

Tikala gave him a very serious look and spoke firmly. "Listen! I known the lure of the darkside is strong, especially on this world, but don't let it dictate your actions, … and whatever you do, stay calm and focused. It's the only way you won't be consumed by the darkness of this planet."

"Yes sis... No more fist fights, and I will not kill any more slavers for the time being." Mathorn muttered in a sluggish tone and wandered towards the turbo lift. Entering the lift, he pressed a button which would take him to the training chamber several stories below, where Briza were waiting.


	18. Episode 4 The search: Part 2

When Mathorn exited the turbo lift, Briza stood waiting right outside with two yellow training sabers in hand. She threw one of them to him, and he had barely caught the saber before she attacked him head on. He had to throw himself to one side, otherwise he would have been cut in half on the spot. , The tip of Briza's blade did however singe his left leg, making him exclaim in surprise. "Ouch! Your blades burn, what kind twisted training saber is this?!"

"That's what _we_ Sith lords use for practice. The blade's edge has a poison that burns on impact with living skin tissue, to simulate real burns from a lightsaber." Briza grinned with a mischievously smile on her face. "Don't worry, the pain won't last for long." She reassured him.

Mathorn gave her an angry glare in return. "You sith just _love_ your pain, don't you." And attacked with a quick over head downward swing.

Briza blocked the blade and redirected it to her right, all the while she replied with a grin. "No... only the weak will ever feel this pain." And replied with a kick toward Mathorn's head.

Mathorn dog his head to avoid the kick. "So the rule is ether not to get hit, or to endure it... I can work with that." Mathorn smirked widely as he got into gear, and counterattacked from a lower angle.

Briza's smile widened, as she danced around the swing and quickly countered with a quick stab at Mathorns chest.

Having gotten used to the wight and feeling of his sith training blade, Mathorn quickly redirected the stab, and moved on the offensive.

Both combatants were skilled with the Djem So fighting style, which meant both blocked the incoming attacks with a considerable amount of strength and followed up by quickly going on the offensive. They fought back and forth to measure each others strength and endurance, but since none of them gave in, Briza began implementing her skills with Joyo, the fast and all aggressive fighting style.

Mathorn found it increasingly difficult to keep up with his fast moving sister's onslaught of swings and jabs, he had however fought various sith who were skilled in this their preferred fighting style, so he knew it had one particular problem. It had no defense. As he was being forced back into a conner, he jump up onto the wall behind him, and with his legs, launched himself over Briza and used Ataru, the acrobatic fighting style his little sister was famous for, he made a swing mid air aimed at Briza's neck.

Briza had to quickly roll out of harm's way, but still gained a painful and noticeable red mark on her neck. _"He is more agile than I expected!"_ She cursed herself for underestimating her brothers skills with a blade. It went from fighting a juggernaut like opponent, to fighting one that was jumping and spinning around, trying to attack her from every conceivable angle. But just as her opponent made another somersault attack, she used her saber to block and redirected the slash with the one hand, while using the other hand to hurl Mathorn away with a powerful force push. As Mathorn got back on his feet, she used the force to summon _another_ yellow training saber, catching it with her left hand.

Mathorn sighed a little as he looked over at his half sister, who was swing around with her two blades. "I was wondering why you didn't use two blades to start with?"

"To test you of course." Briza replied a little playful, adding in more curious tone. "Tell me Mathorn, are you skilled in dual blade fencing?"

Mathorn shrug his shoulders. "Not really, I prefer a single blade in combat. You have more strength and control with a two-handed grip, plus dual fighting lacks a proper defense." He argued.

"Then how about I let you attack me and we'll see, if your theory holds any water." Briza replied invitingly and made a wide open gesture with her blades.

Mathorn attacked head on with a fast and powerful mid leveled swing, but his blade was elegantly redirected by only one of Briza's blades, while the other jabbed at him. He instantly jumped backwards, but not fast enough as he felt a burning pain from his stomach were Briza's second blade had just struck him.

"You react quickly, once you are focused, but as you can see, just because I can't block your blade to a full stop with a one-handed grip, doesn't mean I won't be able to adjust its trajectory." Briza smiled as it seemed that her lesson had hit home.

"Dammit! Two to one." Mathorn cursed and attacked anew, but his sister's two blade fencing style constantly made sure he couldn't get in close.

First he tried to dance around her guard and followed that up with spin attacks from various angles, but he constantly had to disengage to avoid receiving more injuries. He simply lacked behind in finesse and fencing talent. Were it not for his strong legs, enabling him to sprint out of reach and jump over his sister when she got in close, he would have gotten chopped several time already. _"How the hell am I going to beat old sis' blade skills."_ He pondered as he ran.

"Are you running out of ideas on how to counter my dual fencing?" Briza asked, with a wide grin. It felt good to be the superior dualist.

Mathorn attacked in his usual attack pattern, but once their blades were just about to clash, Mathorn quickly summed the force to his right hand and force pushed Briza's left lightsaber out of her hand grip… or that was his intentions. What really had happened was that he had forced Briza's left arm back a bit, his force push barely penetrate Briza's force bobble.

Instead of counter attacking with her blades, Briza elected to use force choke, before remembering her promise to Tikala and what had happen when the Sith brute had tried that on Mathorn... so instead she just held him in a tight force grip. "Had you been a bit quicker, or put more power behind it, it would have worked." She lectured her half brother.

"Won't work on me." Mathorn replied with a grin. He focused and unleashed a force wave that broke Briza's grip on him with ease.

Briza smiled when Mathorn once again stood ready to continue the dual. "I think that was enough for today. We never know when we will be needed at our best."

"Oh... come on sis, it was just getting good." Mathorn replied. In all honesty, he was glad it was over for now, he would need time to figure out a way to counter her dual blade technique.

"Don't call me _sis!_ " Briza warned, as they put their training blades back on the rack.

"Yes sis-ter." Mathorn joked with a grin. But one firm look from Briza told him exactly how screwed he would be, if didn't shut up this instead.

* * *

In the meantime Tikala and Terrow had been looking over a massive amount of transponder codes from various freighters that had docked with the space station at Dathomir, which also had matched with the transponder codes from the Tenkan Syndicate.

Afterwards Terrow had put up a link to the imperials main datacore, which would alert him if a ship with matching transponder codes entered imperial space.

And Tikala had arranged that she would be notified if any of the freighters were sighted in republic space.

"I don't think anyone ever have had the Empire's and Republic's databases so well intertwined, as we have them right now." Terrow smiled satisfied, at the result they had achieved. "Now we just need a hot line to the Cartel on Nar Shaddaa, and we can call it a day." He said jokingly.

Tikala nodded as she replied in a bit of a disheartened tone. "I just wished that the Republic and the Empire would work this well together in all their dealings. Then I would believe an everlasting peace was possible."

Now it was Terrow's turn to nod. "I believe so too, but I know a lot of people at the office, that wish to start the war a new, or to continue this _cold war_ , as it is now." He mimicked his slightly older sisters tone, but his facial expression changed into a small smile. "Well, I see no reason to dwell on that for now."

"You are right, a negative out view can clouds once judgment." Tikala agreed in a soft voice, as they continued to monitoring data traffic in real time.

As they waited for the next pile of data to be received, Terrow decided to ask a question that had puzzled him greatly. "If I may ask, You seem so different from Mathorn. You are the way I pictured a jedi, calm and focused, yet... Mathorn seems chaotic and aggressive... were you taught at different temples?"

"We were both trained at the academy on Coruscant, but while I were brought to the jedi temple at a very young age, Mathorn first entered when he was in his early teens. He had only been in training for half as long as I." Tikala paused for a moment before continuing. "And before he had truly completed his training, he lost his master. A great jedi. But with no one available at that time to continue his teaching, he had to be taught by the various of masters who could spare some of their time. To add to that, I personally believe my Brother was introduced too early to the dangers of the dark side."

"I see." Terrow said as he contemplated what he had been told. "But there is still one thing that puzzles me. If the dark side is as dangerous as you say, why haven't Briza become a lunatic killing machine?"

"I am not sure." Tikala had to admit, she still knew too little of her sith trained sister to say anything for certain. "It may be her strong feelings of love for you and everyone who she feels a kinship towards, that keeps the light in her, stopping her from causing harm on others, as she would feel the pain echoing in herself too."

"You are partly right. I was tortured in the past... she told me once, that she had felt the pain I was going through. It had been unbearable and had made her both frightened out of her mind and furious all at once." Terrow elaborated.

"I guess I stand corrected." Tikala replied in a soft voice and continued in a low voice, mostly to herself. "There is much I don't know about the dark side of the force."

Terrow shivered when he spoke, as bad memories rose to the surface. "I can't say I know much about the dark side, only the pain it can cause."

"I am sorry to hear that you have been through something so gruesome as torture." Tikala spoke with sorrow in her voice, as she lay a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Terrow casually smiled in return. "It is so long ago that it barely matters anymore."

Tikala mimicked the smile, but said nothing in return, as they both returned to the task at hand.

"Another question if I may." Terrow politely requested.

"You may." Tikala smiled with a hint of laugher.

"It seems you know much of tracking. From what I know of jedi teachings, that isn't something that is normally taught at your temple. Were you specially trained with such skills in mind?"

Tikala thought about the question for moment, pondering how best to answer it. "Well..." she began her tale in a calm voice. "Originally I was trained as a jedi consular, someone who studies the aspects of the force and at times work as a diplomat, because the council believed it was where my force talents would grow most naturally. But after I was put through a series of tests, they found I was better on my feet, than in a meditation chair or as spokesperson. As a result my training was shifted to a more combat oriented style. After I was deemed worthy of the title of jedi knight, I became one of the council's shadows."

"A jedi spy or an infiltrator of a sort?" Terrow asked for clarification.

"That, and much more." Tikala replied softly and elaborated. "We are the guardians in the shadows, a watchful eye. At other times, we go on missions were stealth is key, or check out rumors of importan-"

"Not to be rude! But take a look at this!" Terrow interrupted in haste, pointing a finger at a matching transponder code. The vessel broadcasting the code seemed to be heading to Dromund kaas.

Tikala looked at the transponder codes. They did indeed seem to be match one of the ships that had recently been on the Dathomir space-station, before it blew up.

Terrow pushed a button and started talking into a comm-unit. "Lord Briza! We have found something!"

A few second later, Briza and Mathorn stood behind them looking at the details of the ship heading towards the planet, which had just given it a clearance code to proceed straight into the heart of the imperial capital.

"Track the ship's destination. I want all of us ready to take the ship by force, immediately upon arrival." Briza ordered in a commanding tone.

"Wouldn't it be wiser to request the imperial army to detain the ship and then order the people involved to be transferred here?" Terrow advised, as it would seem the correct choice for a sith lord of Briza's power and status.

Briza shook her head in dismissal and dictated. "I feel a more personal approach is the best course of action, if we are to be sure."

"Yes, let's see for ourselves, if they feel like sharing stories." Mathorn added in agreement.

"Once we know the exact landing platform, myself and Mathorn will go in and force them to cooperate. Terrow, you will be our eyes from on high. Should something happen, you will gun them down. Tikala, help Terrow if you can, but stay out of sight. We can't have you exposed accidentally." Briza explained the battle plan.

Both Tikala and Mathorn nodded in full agreement. Terrow thought this plan could result in unnecessary risk to themselves, since they didn't know exactly who they were up against. But he didn't share his siblings abilities see through the force, so he decided to remain silent.

* * *

It was night when the Bounty hunters ship touched down on Dromund Kaas. Strangely enough, it didn't land at the Mandalorian Enclave in Kaas city. Instead it landed on outskirts of the city, were the poor people lived. It was a particularly gloomy place to be, dark alleys with beggars and shady characters wandered around nearby, like shadows in a play.

Terrow and Tikala both lay hidden above on a nearby skyscraper, each with their own par macro binoculars. Terrow zoomed in with his binoculars to better see the details of a being who wore a huge metallic armor, painted in an orange pattern. "Doesn't look like any Mandalorian, nor any bounty hunter armor I have ever seen before. Maybe it's a droid?" He pondered as his readout came out negative on any signs of life force on the thing.

"I sense there is a living being within the metallic shell. It looks really cumbersome." Tikala added calmly.

"Agreed, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it will be slow though. Any idea of the person within?" Terrow asked, pondering the purpose of their visit, to the more seedy area of the city.

"I can't get a proper feeling of the person's intentions, not without uncloaking myself in the force." Tikala informed.

"Better not risk it." Terrow muttered, as he noticed someone else, this time in green, exiting the ship and walked down the ramp. The second being was also clad in full metallic armor, but noticeable thinner and lighter than the orange counterpart.

"We are moving to intercept them." Came it from their commlinks in Briza's voice.

"Understood. Make sure to keep in sight at all times, so we can provide covering fire." Terrow advised cautious, as he put away his binoculars, and readied his TZ 700 sniper rifle for imminent fire.

As Briza put her comm unit away, she turned to her brother. "This matter should be handle with persuasion and intimidation, which means I will do the talking and you remain quiet."

"Ye-es my... Master... Lord... Lady... Princess." Mathorn muttered in reply, while grinning slightly.

"Shut up, and keep it shut." Briza replied irritated. This lack of manners needs to stop.


	19. Episode 4 The search: Part 3

Together, Briza and Mathorn walked casually over towards the Bounty hunters. Both siblings were dressed in black light-weight sith warriors armor.

Right before they reached them, a pink twi'lek too walked down the ramp to join his metalclad comrades. The three bounty hunters turned their attention to the two sith lords coming towards them and the one in metallic green stepped forward facing the sith lords.

Right before they came within speaking distance, Briza sensed an abundant amount of fear, not of toward her, but of something else. But even more so, she could sense an extreme amount of pain emanating from the two in armor.

"I am Lord Briza and by order of the empire, I demand to know what your business is here as well as any and all documentation on your comings and goings, in the past few days." Briza demanded out right in a very firm tone.

Zak suddenly remembered the sith lord. She was the last thing he remembered from back on the space-station, right before his shock grenade detonated and he, and everyone around him, collapsed. "SHE IS DANGEROUS!" He shouted in desperation.

"Ignore him my lord. We are here on private business for the Tenken syndicate and our missions is for an anonymous client." The one in the green armor tried to explain in a raspy metallic voice reverberating from the helmet's speaker.

"I don't _care_ about your privacy policies, and I'm _not_ going to ask again! WHAT IS _YOUR_ BUSINESS!" Briza loudly threatened them with a harsh force enhanced glare. Zak was now scared shitless.

Both Okan and Zugi had taken pain relieving drugs to dampen their headaches, but because they couldn't shut down their now damaged chips, they were _still_ emitting a strong signal through their already aching brains. With Briza using the force to break down their will, the chips resulting emission were like eruptions sending head splitting migraines through their brains, enough so, that it triggered a flight or fight response.

Briza sensed the sudden rush of pain from the two armored bounty hunters, just as laser bolts started flying at her from the arm-cannon of the orange colored hunter, at point black range. She deflected the bolts with a quick activation of her red lightsaber.

From the top of the skyscraper, Terrow fired a series of stun bolts from his sniper rifle, but his shots just bounced off the armored foes. "Not enough!" He cursed, "Tikala! Can you see if I have brought any armor piercing bullets?!"

"One moment!" Tikala quickly, but quietly, hurried back to their speeder to see what kind ammunitions were at hand.

At ground level, the green armored hunter joined in, as Briza was met with a burst of gas heated flame from a light wrist-flamethrower. She instinctively wrapped the force around her, cocooning herself in a force bobble to avoid being incinerated on the spot.

The heavier orange hunter, used her integrated jetpack, propelling her up into the air. Once in the air, she fired a small rocket at the, now occupied, flame surrounded Sith Lord.

Mathorn quickly force pushes the rocket to spiral away into an unfortunate group of onlookers. He followed up by jumping against the opponent, but forget that his enemy could adjust course midair and as she did, she threw a shock grenade which detonated once in range of the would-be flying jedi. Mathorn felt a surge of electricity coursing through him as he collapsed to the ground. It only stunned him momentarily before he was up again, deflecting and dodging a hailstorm of blaster bolts fired from the orange bounty hunter's gatling-gauntlet.

"Don't come any clo… clo… closer, I have killed sith and jedi before." The pink twi'lek threatened with a weak show of bravado and bluffing, while swinging a green lightsaber around. He was shot in the head by a tranquilizer dart from above and collapsed motionlessness on the ground. The two other bounty hunters heard the shot and rightfully assumed what had happened, but neither cared enough to even glance in his direction, much less if he remained alive.

To counter the flamethrower, Briza throw her red saber at the green bounty hunter, who sprang to the side avoiding decapitation. She quickly followed up with a head on charge, while activating her second _blue_ blade with her left hand, ready to cleave her enemy in two.

Instead of continuing the fight The green hunter opted to retreat, and he did so at four times the speed of any known humanoid. Briza immediately sprinted after in pursued, with the force enhancing her speed enough to keep up.

The other hunter likewise decided to retreat and flew over the nearest cluster of buildings, but Mathorn followed from below as well as by using the force to jump from rooftop to rooftop.

* * *

Briza had been gaining on her prey little by little. As the bounty hunter passed a corner of Kaas city's lower streets, he shot a volley of dozens of laser bolts back at her, one bolt passing through her whirling blades and strifing her right shoulder. Her pain turned to rage and in her rage, she used the force to hurl a nearby speeder bike at full force towards the hunter. In a split second he threw himself down onto the ground as the spinning bike flew over his head and strait into the wall behind him. The bike exploded into a burning wreck, sending razor sharp scrap pieces flying through the air, one landing right in the spot where his head had been a moment earlier.

The bounty hunter sprang from the ground and leaped over the wreckage, just as a loud shot was heard. The next think he noticed was his left leg had stopped responding. Looking down he saw why. A high caliber laser shot had penetrated his leg armor and destroyed the booster, as well as severing his heel tendon.

"One wrong move and I will ignite your gas tank! Cooperate or _die_!" Briza threatened, venom filling her voice, as she sent him a deadly stare.

With one lightsaber aiming at his tank and the other at his throat, as well as the laser sight trained on him from above, he didn't see any other options then to give in. Exhausted, he muttered. "I surrender." And disarming himself, whereafter he proceded to take off his helmet, revealing himself to be chiss.

* * *

In the meantime, Mathorn had been tracking the orange bounty hunter. While his legs had trouble keeping up with a jetpack, he knew that a typical jetpack would run out of fuel soon enough and as luck would have it, his brother was laying down suppressing fire, forcing her to keep a low altitude to avoid being shut down.

They didn't continue much further before the bounty hunter ceased fleeing and landed on a building a bit higher up. Mathorn force leaped high up and landed face to face with his armored adversary. "YO Bounty, why don't you just give up and come with us... we got _puffcake._ " Mathorn tried to charm the being in question, in his own child like manner.

"Shut up, you bantha tick! Go space yourself, before I disintegrate you and shove your charred remains down a trash compactor." Replied an angry metallic voice.

Mathorn sighed, and shrugged a little. "Harsh words, but if a fight is what you want, _I'm_ game!"

Not a microsecond went by after he had finished his sentence, before an orange armored arm with two build-in blasters was pointing at him, opening fire at point blank range. He quickly went on the defensive in order to block the barrage of laser bolts that would otherwise have had pulverized him instantaneously. To buy some time and remain alive for just a short while longer, Mathorn had to assume the defensive form of soresu. A form that Ill suited his otherwise heavily offensive fighting style and _one_ he rarely used. If he kept it up long enough though, his enemy's blasters would deplete and he could counterattack head on and win with ease.

He had however failed to notice, that only one arm was engaging him, while the bounty hunter used the other to grab a grenade and throw at him. This was followed up a microsecond later by a mini rocket, fired strait at him. He recognized the danger a bit too late and barely managed to force push the rocket away, it exploding into the side of a nearby skyscraper instead. He didn't have time to stop the boom from the grenade though and engulfed in a lighting inferno. His body spasmed uncontrollably and he lost focus for a split second, long enough for two blaster bolts to pierce his right chin and left shoulder. Mathorn, despite having suffered burning injuries, which he willfully ignored, continued to keep his defences up for as long as possible. The electric shock had made him a bit too wobbly though. "Y _o_ u... a _r_ e... a... d _e_ a _d_... p _i_ e _c_ e.. o _f_... e _x_ c _r_ e _m_ -m _e_ n _t_ s!" He stuttered various insults, while blocking laser bolts, as well as dodging grenades and incoming mini rockets. But luck was with him, as his brother from on high, fired a quick laser bolt which hit and burned through the armor to gas canister within the left arm, resulting in an explosion, sending small burning metal fragments flying in all directions.

With one arm blown to pieces, the bounty hunter resumed her flight, while redirecting her rockets toward an air speeder hovering over some nearby skyscrapers.

"Evasive maneuver!" Terrow shouted to Tikala, who immediately stirred the speeder away with a couple of rockets passing by them, close enough that they could have reached out and graped one. They were not quick enough though, and a moment later took an explosive hit to the speeder's stabilizer. Both the pilot and the sniper had to jump the burning vehicle, onto the skyscraper right below them, to avoid ending their days as charred corpses, crashed in the streets below the building in an inferno of flames.

Taking the opportunity, Mathorn force enhanced his sprinting and jumped up after the fleeing enemy, with surprising speed, but little accuracy. He went further than intended and slashed out with his lightsaber in an arc in front of her jetpack, missing it instead of destroying it.

Without really noticing it, his arms were suddenly bound together by a small (durosteel)wire and as a result he quickly found himself dragged around after the hunter in mid air. Although his arms were bound, he still had his lightsaber in hand. He looked up at the bounty hunter, who aimed a mini rocket right at him. In a desperate attempt, he force punched the rocket away before it could be fired... or so was the intent anyway. What really happened was, that it detonated prematurely, damaging some of the bounty hunters right arm in the process, including the part that held the wire that bound him. The next second he knew, he was flying through the air, crashing through a transparisteel window and right onto a variety of furniture, and coming to a holt with all manner of splinters burrowed deep in his body. "Bantha poodoo!" He cursed as his body reported intensive pain streaming in from _everywhere_.

A couple of elderly red skinned beings came into the room to see what all the ruckus was about, threats, insults and huge demands of compensation followed as the elder male pureblood graped an lighting staff and pointed it at him. This lasted right up until they noticed that he wore the uniform of sith warrior, whereafter they started begging for forgiveness.

"Sorry... just had to _crash_ for a minute. I hope you didn't mind." Mathorn apologized as he tried to get up, but his muscles were not working properly and he collapsed back on his bag. "Bad day." He mumbled as he tried again with renewed strength.

"Are you alright milord?" The elder male pureblood asked him, with a hint of fear in his voice.

"I'll manage, thank you very much." Mathorn muttered in reply, as he wobbled out of the apartment and hammered the button to the elevator door.

* * *

Meanwhile, the bounty hunter barely got to the rooftop, before a thrown red lightsaber damaged the jetpacks engine, resulting in a turbulent landing on said rooftop, where the red zabrak awaited her.

"I told you to surrender, now you will pay the _price!_ " Briza spat angrily, as she called the lightsaber back to her hand, while turning on her blue saber at the sametime.

A metallic chuckle could be heard as the bounty hunter got up from the ground, followed by the words. "No, _you_ will _._ " The hunter clicked a switch and detonated a seismic mine, which went off shattering explosion, pulverizing the entire roof of the decrepit building into rubble, smashing the level below. As a result the whole building became extremely unstable.

Both combatants had collapsed down into the rooms below. A few screams could be heard, before they quickly died out.

Briza use the force to smash the insane hunter with the rubble at her disposal. She smashed piece after piece of rubble against the already badly battered hunter, but her senses warned her that the building itself was leaning dangerously to one side. Instantly she reached out with the force and with all her might, counteracted the tilting building, and with only a short window of time, pushed the skyscraper back to its normal stationary position, before its inevitable crash would have been impossible to hinder.

A loud CRACK could be heard, followed by the sound of a large amount of rubbled being crushed below the old skyscraper. The buildings foundation was collapsing in on itself. Both combatants ignored the danger of each other and sprinted to the nearest neighboring tower.

Inside an elevator, Mathorn could all too clearly feel the huge vibrations in the building. He desperately prayed that the elevator would not lose power before it reached the top, or for that matter, that the building reached ground level with him stuck inside it... dying in an elevator _just_ wasn't his idea of a good _martyring_ death. As luck would have it, the doors opened up for him to step out and see his sister and the bounty hunter sprinting passed him, he instantly followed them. The others jumped to a nearby building with him following their example. Despite being the better jumper, his injuries made it all but elegant and while landing safely on the neighbor building, he lost his footing and stumbled on the hard roof.

The roaring sound of a building being crushed, quickly followed by the sound of several sirens coming from all directions. With projectors from armed air speeders bathing the three fighters in white light, a voice shouted through a loudspeaker. "You are surrounded, any attempt of fleeing and you will be shoot."

"Darn... so close." Mathorn cursed, believing that he and Briza would have captured the bounty hunter. But seeing an end to this, he, out of pure exhaustion, welcomed it gladly, since imperial troops were pointing their weapons at him as well...

The orange bounty hunter, who, by now, was depleted of all kinds of fuel and ammunition, not to mention a lost robotic arm, surrendered.

"I am Lord Briza. I demand that I be released this instance!" She demanded, with the force enhancing her already intimidating tone. She hated the idea of being prosecuted as a common criminal and sincerely hoped her status as a sith lord would grant her a free pass.

Despite being a strong sith warrior himself and a very respected lieutenant in the imperial military, the strong presence of Lord Briza made the sith flinch. He knew his life could be over, if he did not carefully considered his next words. "I... am... sorry my Lord." He bowed in respect. "But on orders from Darth Imperious, you are all to be detained and questioned by him, personally."

"Very well." Briza muttered more relaxed, but still with a dangerous amount of irritation her tone. In her mind however, she knew that she was in deep trouble, Darth Imperious was not known to tolerate reckless acts in his sphere of influence.

They were all disarmed, except Briza. Mathorn had quickly handed his lightsaber over. It took awhile before the orange bounty hunter was fully disarmed though, since not only the armor, but some of the body parts themselves had to be removed. As they were in the midst of removing the helmet...

"You're a chick!?" Mathorn exclaimed in surprise, when he saw the distinctly female zabrak face the hunter's helmet had covered just a moment ago. "This robo-tank psycho, is really a _girl_?" He wondered out loud. It had never occurred to him that these kinds of heavily enhanced cyborg people could be females, this one even had pretty face... if you looked past all the scars.

Zugi gave him a dumbfounded look in return. _"What an idiot."_

Briza glared daggers at Mathorn for uttering something so stupid.

Two military shuttles landed in close vicinity of where they were being held. "Board the shuttle, if it pleases my lord." The Lieutenant carefully demanded, whereafter he turned toward the two other detaineese, pointed at the shuttles and ordered. "Get on board."

"Yes, yes, daddy." Mathorn muttered irritated and boarded without further complications, as the bounty hunter boarded a separate shuttle.

As Briza and Mathorn got on board, they had some time to glance out the viewport. They noticed that several building were ablaze and neighboring streets were crowded with scared and angry people, looking at the catastrophic that had just transpired.

Briza, now more than ever, knew that they _all_ were in for an ear lashing, _at the very least_.


End file.
